Fonds
The Pen and Pencil Club was founded March 5, 1890, by the artists and writers R.W. Boodle, William Brymner, J. Try-Davies, Robert Harris, William Hope and John E. Logan. Its mandate was to promote the arts and literature in Montreal, while serving as a symbol of the strong ties uniting artists and authors. The meetings of this club, whose members included leading artistic and literary figures, produced a wealth of creative work.
With the exception of the year 1892, when eleven members joined the organization, this very exclusive club never admitted more than three new members each year and never had more than thirty active members at a time. Members included artists Henri Beau, Maurice Cullen, Edmond Dyonnet, Joseph-Charles Franchère, Clarence Gagnon, Louis-Philippe Hébert, Charles Huot, Alexander Young Jackson, Henri Julien, James W. Morrice and Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté; authors Stephen Leacock and Andrew Macphail; poets William H. Drummond, Charles Gill and John McCrae; composer Guillaume Couture; and architects Ernest Cormier, William Sutherland Maxwell and Percy Nobbs.
The Pen and Pencil Club's activities were reserved solely for members, though guests from outside Montreal were allowed. In addition, membership was for men only.
Beginning in 1893, the club organized an annual festival, while meetings were held on a regular basis. Most meetings were in members' homes, with many of them taking place in the studio of painter Edmond Dyonnet, who was a key contributor to the club, its general orientation and its achievements. Participants had to bring an artistic or literary work on the club's chosen topic to these meetings, which took the form of creative workshops. Meetings were also a forum for discussing and critiquing the works presented. In addition, the club funded the publication of some of its members' literary works.
The club's early years were characterized by a flurry of creativity that produced a number of original compositions. However, its activities began to wane shortly before the Great War.
Falling membership and a loss in creative momentum led to the club's gradual decline. The Pen and Pencil Club disbanded in 1966.
Scope and Content
The fonds of the Pen and Pencil Club covers the organization's activities from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, focussing primarily on its members' artistic and literary creations.
The fonds contains administrative documents such as minutes of meetings and governing documents. In addition, books of account, receipts, bank books, account statements and revenue and expense reports document the club's finances.
There are also documents associated with the Pen and Pencil Club's membership, creative activities and organized events, notably a list of members and some original typewritten and handwritten literary works. Furthermore, the fonds includes three scrapbooks containing unpublished artistic and literary creations by members like Edmond Dyonnet, William Brymner, William McLennan, and Thomas Joseph Workman Burgess. Composed of various drawings, watercolours, poems and essays, these scrapbooks cover the period 1890 to 1896. There is also a series of menus illustrated by members of the Pen and Pencil Club, and some sheet music. Finally, the collection includes correspondence, publications, press clippings and critiques, along with a series of photographic portraits, most of which are signed by the subject.
Classification Scheme
P139 Pen
and Pencil Club
P139/A Administrative Documents
P139/A1 Governing
documents
P139/A2 Financial
records
P139/A3 Minutes
P139/A4 Membership records
P139/A5 Correspondence
P139/A6 Speeches
P139/A7 General
information and press clippings
P139/B Artistic Production of Members
P139/B1 Poetry and prose
P139/B2 Sheet music
P139/B3 Illustrated menus
P139/B4 Scrapbooks
P139/C Photographs of Members
Source of title proper: Title based on the content of the fonds.
Physical description: Includes 88 photographs of Pen and Pencil Club members.
Language: The documents are in English and French.
Finding aids: The fonds includes a research paper entitled Sociability and National Questions. The Pen and Pencil Club of Montreal 1890-1914, written by Claudine Gélinas-Faucher with the help of a Max Stern-McCord Fellowship, as well as a research paper by Catherine Lambert, a student in the Masters in Art Studies program at UQAM.
Associated
material:
LAC: Andrew Macphail Fonds (R2364-0-6-E).
Ville de Montréal Archives. 1924: Pen and Pencil Club Fonds (CA M001 BM083).
Centre for Research on French Canadian Culture, University of Ottawa: Edmond-Dyonnet Fonds (P9), Pen and Pencil Club series (P9/G).
General note: A menu (M997.40.85) dated April 28, 1945, produced for the Club's Annual Festival, is preserved in the McCord Museum's Paintings, Prints and Drawings collection. It features a work signed "H. R. P.," as well as the signatures of the 21 club members.
Last update: February 28, 2019
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.
This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and Canadian Heritage.