The Story Behind Sarnia's Art Movement

Gallery Lambton is physically changing locations and adopting a new name; the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery is slated to open later in 2012. Have you ever wondered where and when Sarnians first had an opportunity to be inspired by great art? The answer lies in the efforts of a local women's group who fund-raised for Red Cross during WWI and the networking skills of local lawyer Norman Gurd.

Gurd followed his father Robert Gurd into legal practice, pursuing his studies in Toronto and returning to Sarnia in 1896 to work with the firm Kittermaster & Gurd. A strong believer in the library system, Gurd is credited with creating and popularizing the slogan, "The library belonds to you, do you belong to the library?"

Early art exhibition catalogue from Sarnia Public Library

Gurd's enthusiasm for the library system brought him closer to the network that would bring art to Sarnia. It was the Women's Art Conservation Committee (later the Women's Conservation Art Association) that purchased the first paintings to be hung in the Sarnia Public Library. The committee was an offshoot of the Women's Conservation Committee created during the First World War to raise funds for Red Cross. These ladies collected waste such as paper, cloth, fats and metals, which were in turn sold to local scrap dealers.

When WWI came to a close, the Women's Conservation Committee was seeking an alternative recipient for the financial fruits of their fund-raising efforts. Committee president Frances Flintoft wrote to Norman Gurd on July 25, 1919: "We have felt for some time past, that we should have displayed in the library, good pictures which would have an educating influence upon the public and would show them what good Art really is. There is no opportunity of this kind in Sarnia." She reflected on this process in a letter on March 2, 1929: "... turn our organization into an art association when the war was over - to buy Canadian pictures by Canadian artists and to form the nucleus of a permanent collection to have in the Public Library until such time as Sarnia should have an art gallery."

First two pages of a letter from Women's Conservation Art Committee President Frances Flintoft, March 2, 1929 reminiscing about the birth of the art movement in Sarnia.

After fulfilling the Red Cross's needs, the Women's Art Conservation Committee had $300.00 left and put this money towards the purchase of three paintings in March, 1920. George L. Smith records in his book, Norman Gurd and the Group of 7, that the pieces purchased were A.Y. Jackson's "Spring Lower Canada," H.B. Palmer's "Sawing Logs" and J.W. Beatty's "Winter near Toronto." [These links will take you to Gallery Lambton's online catalogue: note in the Credit Line, "Gift of the Sarnia Women's Conservation Art Association."] Other paintings purchased by the committee included Tom Thomson's "Chill November" (in December, 1920) and Lawren S. Harris's "Mongoose Lake" (in February, 1925).

Tom Thomson's "Chill November."

Sarnia Public Library was proud to display these paintings, offering  Sarnians a safe place to gather and appreciate art. Gurd expressed in a letter to Dr. Locke, head of the Toronto Public Library on November 3, 1919, that he would like to acquire "good pictures which would be truly representative of Canadian Art." What came to be known as the Sarnia Public Library and Art Gallery held various exhibitions and encouraged the sale and appreciation of authentic Canadian artwork.

Sarnia's art community was born out of the desire to allow the public easy access to great art; the patriotic desire to promote/display Canadian art; and the fund-raising efforts of grassroots community groups.

The Lambton Room is fortunate to have some interesting documentation of art's introduction into Sarnia. We have preserved much of Norman Gurd's correspondence, including a series of letters received from A.Y. Jackson in the 1920s discussing exhibitions and the sale of artwork. Our collection of catalogues from exhibitions at the Sarnia Public Library is also interesting, along with our biographical information on Gurd and newspaper clippings documenting his contributions to Sarnia.

Letter from A.Y. Jackson to Norman Gurd, February 16, 1925. Jackson and Gurd are corresponding about the availability of paintings for upcoming exhibitions. Jackson writes: "I am afraid we cannot find any more Thomson canvases. They are practically finished. We have a small one in the building which we are sending to Wembley. There are a few unfinished ones around but no great quality in them. The family are holding quite a number of sketches but will not sell them..."

Local History Gem! The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection

The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection is one of the most interesting and accessible collections at the Lambton Room. It is comprised of over 58,000 negatives of photographs that appeared in the Sarnia Observer in the 1950s and 1960s. In this blog post, I'm going to examine what makes this collection so interesting, and take a look into the future by acknowledging a recent donation from the Observer with new decades of material!

Sarnia Observer Negative: Sep. 29, 1950, SCITS Blue Bombers

The Sarnia Observer Negative Collection was almost lost before it could begin. According to the story handed down by past generations of Lambton County history enthusiasts, local historian and writer George Smith discovered that the Observer was discarding its collection of old negatives. As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, Where Did Our Collection Come From?, the story goes that Mr. Smith fished the negative collection from a dumpster behind the Observer office. We are fortunate for George Smith's zeal for Lambton County's history!

The photographic negatives are valuable because they allow us to create prints of images that appeared in the newspaper in the 1950s and 1960s. We have the newspapers on microfilm, but the pictures often do not show up well on microfilm, and when they are printed the results are often disappointing. With the Sarnia Observer Negative Collection, we can locate the original negatives and make significantly better quality scans and prints of the images.

Sarnia Observer Negative: Remembrance Day Parade, 1952

Summer students have been working with the Sarnia Observer Negative Collection for over ten years to increase its accessibility. The entire collection of 58,000 negatives has been indexed by summer students, and this index is available online. The Lambton County Libraries, Museums and Gallery web page has a link to the "Museum Catalogue." In this catalogue, you can browse the Sarnia Observer Negative Collection by searching for "Sarnia Observer Negative" in the drop-down search bar (the direct link is here). All of the photographs are indexed by event, location, and names of the individuals. In recent summers, students have begun the long process of scanning the negatives and uploading the images to accompany these database descriptions

Currently, the Observer is in the midst of compiling space in its downtown office. I was fortunate enough to speak with some staff from the Observer at the end of 2011 regarding some material that was going to lose its current office space. That material included negatives from the mid-1980s to early 2000s, as well as some original bound volumes of the newspaper. I was more than happy to take this material off their hands! The generous donation is now safely stored in our vault where it will be preserved. It will take numerous summer students and a lot of perseverance, but we look forward to the day when these additional negatives are also indexed and uploaded to the museum catalogue. A huge thank you to the Observer for donating this material to our archives!

Sarnia Observer Negative: Apr. 20, 1950, Ken Maidman Kayaks in Sarnia Bay