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Fonds - Hugh A. Peck | McCord Museum
Hugh A. Peck

Fonds

Hugh A. Peck
Date 1909-1931, predominant 1909
Dimensions1 cm of textual records. - 295 photographs
Object NumberP416
CollectionMcCord
CreditGift of Hugh A. Peck
Biographical Sketch

Hugh Adderley Peck was born in Montreal on December 5, 1888. He was the son of Mary Alice Skelton Peck (1855-1943), one of the founders of the Canadian Handicrafts Guild and a leading figure in Montreal's arts and crafts scene, and business owner James Henry Peck (1851-1903). He had six siblings: Esmond, James Bauman, Hester, Harry, Stuart and Brian Peck.

In 1908, along with Owen Dawson and Percy Douglas, he founded the Nazareth Street Boys Club, which later became the Griffintown Club, a community recreational organization for youth.

The following year, he travelled to James Bay and Ungava Bay on the steamer Adventure, which was owned by the Revillon Frères company.

In 1911, he graduated from McGill University with a bachelor's degree in architecture, a field in which he worked his entire life. Prior to the First World War, he worked with the firm Brown and Vallance, and then joined Barott, Blackader& Webster. In 1928, he drew up the plans for the renovation and extension of the Thomas Brunet heritage house for his brother James Bauman Peck.

On June 4, 1913, he married Edith Madeleine Kohl (1888-1953) in Montreal. In 1915, he was deployed to Great Britain as a pilot for the Royal Naval Air Service, and then the Royal Air Force. He rose up the ranks, becoming a captain, and was awarded the British War Medal. While in England, he had two sons: Hugh Sands Hamilton Peck in 1916 and George Richard Hamilton Peck in 1918.

After the war, Peck returned to Montreal and opened his own architectural practice. An amateur painter as well, he was president of the Montreal Arts Club in 1927.

In 1941, Peck became an engineer in the Works and Building Division at No. 3 Training Command, for the Royal Canadian Air Force, until his health began to decline. He died May 3, 1945, in his Westmount home.


Scope and Content

This fonds focusses on Hugh Adderley Peck's 1909 trip to Canada's Far North aboard the steamer Adventure. It presents the views of a young man from a well-to-do English-speaking Montreal family as he navigates the North, recording his observations about the wildlife, life in the trading posts, and the lifestyle of the Nunavimmiut. It also illustrates the relations between the Nunavimmiut and the fur traders of the time. It consists of a travel journal and a photo album.

On July 28, 1909, Adventure left Montreal, headed for the Strutton Islands in James Bay and Fort Chimo (now Kuujjuaq) in Ungava Bay. Its mission was to deliver supplies to the Revillon Frères company trading posts located there. At the end of the journey, the ship returned to St. John's, Newfoundland, and then Halifax in September of the same year.

In addition to notes about the trip, the journal contains sketches depicting the geography of Canada's North, Arctic landscapes and Nunavimmiut homes and objects seen by Peck. The last pages also include a short English/Anishinaabemowin glossary. The photo album holds 295 black and white prints, along with four press clippings. The photographs were taken by Peck and provide a daily record of his trip aboard the Adventure and the people he met. Dated from 1928 to 1931, the newspaper articles discuss navigating the Far North, the city of Churchill, Manitoba, and a McGill University exhibition of Nunavimmiut objects that included some items from Peck's collection.


Classification Scheme

P416 Hugh A. Peck
     P416/A Travel journal
     P416/B Photographs


Notes

Source of title proper: Based on the creator of the fonds.

Immediate source of acquisition: The documents were acquired by the McCord Museum in 2000.

Language: The documents are in English and Anishinaabemowin, but primarily in English.

Other formats: A transcription of the journal is available.

Related groups of records: The McCord Museum's collection includes a fonds (P543) dedicated to Mary Alice Skelton Peck, Hugh Peck's mother. The Museum also has several fonds associated with Arctic exploration: Sir George Back Fonds (P238), William E. Cormack Fonds (P239), R.H.S. and Fred S. Cresswell Fonds (P240), Peter W. Dease Fonds (P241), Sir John Franklin Fonds (P242), John J. O’Neill Fonds (P244), Sir John Ross Fonds (P245), Robert McVicar Fonds (P103), David Walker Fonds (P316) and Samuel Herbert Coward Fonds (P363).

General note: The McCord Museum's Photography and Indigenous Cultures collections contain portraits of various members of the Peck family and a number of Indigenous objects (M2000.113.X).

 

Last modified : Octobre 23, 2020


Information about the objects in our collection is updated to reflect new research findings. If you have any information to share regarding this object, please email reference.mccord@mccord-stewart.ca.

Information about rights and reproductions is available here.

Online Collections | McCord Museum - Montreal Social History Museum
Peck, Mary Alice Skelton
1868-1943
P543
Allan, Sir Hugh Montagu
1872-[ca. 1918]
P086
Graham, Hugh
Graham, Hugh
1910-1920
P252
Durnford, Hugh
[1926]-1974
P129
Travel journal of Hugh A. Peck
Travel journal of Hugh A. Peck
Hugh A. Peck
1909
M2000.113.7
Jones, John Lewis & Hugh McCorkindale
[186-]
P484
Archambault, Joseph Ephrem & Hugh McCorkindale
[186-]
P483
Silver and Oscar, Hugh A. Peck's husky pups, on deck of steamer "S.S. Adventure", Churchill, MB, 1909
Silver and Oscar, Hugh A. Peck's husky pups, on deck of steamer "S.S. Adventure", Churchill, MB, 1909
Hugh A. Peck
1909
M2000.113.6.182
Hugh A. Peck unloading ballast from schooner, Port Harrison (Inukjuak), Hudson Bay, 1909
Hugh A. Peck unloading ballast from schooner, Port Harrison (Inukjuak), Hudson Bay, 1909
Inconnu / Unknown
1909
M2000.113.6.110
Hugh A. Peck unloading ballast from schooner, Port Harrison (Inukjuak), Hudson Bay
Hugh A. Peck unloading ballast from schooner, Port Harrison (Inukjuak), Hudson Bay
Inconnu / Unknown
1909
M2000.113.6.111

This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and Canadian Heritage.