Sub-subseries

This sub-subseries documents Thérèse Casgrain's relationships with her friends, acquaintances and colleagues from the worlds of politics and culture. The collection is composed primarily of original letters sent by various correspondents and typewritten copies of letters written by Thérèse Casgrain. It also contains greeting cards, postcards, press clippings and two photographs. Covering a span of over 65 years, Thérèse Casgrain's correspondence occasionally addresses personal topics. For instance, following the announcement of her engagement to Montreal lawyer Pierre Casgrain, she received a letter in September 1915 from her friend Adolphe Routhier. However, the sub-subseries mainly documents her social activities, her involvement with women's and human rights groups, and her stances on the advancement of women in politics and Canadian unity. It also contains many letters of friendship and thank-you notes.

The collection includes several letters from federal MP Ernest Lapointe, some of which address the issue of women's suffrage. In a letter dated May 30, 1932, Lapointe discusses the theme of an address Mackenzie King is planning to deliver at a breakfast event. Lapointe believed that a speech about the evolution of liberalism would be too theoretical, given the hardship gripping the country, and would add nothing new. He proposes that Thérèse Casgrain ask the head of the Liberal Party to talk instead about "the need for cooperation among the classes" during the Great Depression. He says that this would enable King to "counter the accusations of socialism and communism directed against us, and to reiterate some of his points from Industry and Humanity." In addition, the sub-subseries contains several letters between Thérèse Casgrain and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, including one in which she laments his defeat in the May 22, 1979, election. A 1973 exchange with astronomer Carlyle Smith Beals mentions the publication of Casgrain's book A Woman in a Man's World (1972). Trevor Moore and Maurice Bellemare wrote to applaud her remarks at the April 1980 "Yvettes" rally in the Montreal Forum. For her part, in a letter dated March 27, 1980, Thérèse Casgrain reassures Senator Eugène Forsey about his daughter Helen, who he reports has become an "all-out feminist." On October 19, 1976, she expresses outrage at what is happening to the elderly in a reply to Marie Guimond, who had written to deplore the fact that seniors must often live in residences far from younger family members and their former homes. Senator Casgrain appears to have had some difficulty accepting old age, as evidenced in a letter from Roger Ouimet, who writes shortly before her 80th birthday to comfort her, recalling all her accomplishments and expressing his tremendous admiration for her courage, sincerity, energy and generosity.

Among Thérèse Casgrain's many other correspondents were Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, Lieutenant Governor Pauline McGibbon, federal MP Iona Campagnolo from Skeena, British Columbia, Dominican priest and sociologist Georges-Henri Lévesque, and author Gabrielle Roy.