Henry Wentworth Monk fonds: Finding Aid

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketch

Scope and Contents

Index Terms

Administrative Information

Custodial History

Preferred Citation

Contact Information

National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives

Henry Wentworth Monk fonds:

Finding Aid


Summary
	Title:	Henry Wentworth Monk fonds.
	Dates:	– 1872, 1878.
	Quantity:	– 7 items of textual records.

Biographical Sketch

Henry Wentworth Monk was born on April 6, 1827, to a farming family in Ottawa. At the age of seven, he was sent to Christ's Hospital School in England, a deeply religious institution, where he would remain until 1842. Upon his return to Canada, Monk spent five years farming and studying the Bible, deeply concerned with the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, which would become an issue of life-long interest. In 1853, he committed himself to the ministry of Christ, and travelled to Israel, arriving the following year. It was here that Monk first met William Holman Hunt, who shared many of Monk's religious views, and who would paint a portrait of his friend in 1858. Monk returned to Canada in 1855 following the death of his father, and spent two years writing "A Simple Interpretation of the Revelation", which he later published in England under the financial backing of art critic John Ruskin. Monk's behaviour became increasingly erratic in his later life, having suffered head injuries in an 1864 shipwreck, and he was briefly committed to Kingston's Rockwood Asylum in 1868. He continued to publish religious articles in both England and Ottawa, before devoting himself to the issue of world peace in 1884, seeking positions in the Canadian Parliament and Senate in order to carry out his vision. Monk died on August 24, 1896 of blood poisoning. Hunt's portrait of Monk was acquired by the National Gallery of Canada in 1911 from Mrs. Edith Holman Hunt.

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Scope and Contents

Fonds consists of correspondence and articles written by Monk, and one letter written to Monk by an unnamed friend. The items are numbered 1 through 7. The letters include two copies of a manifesto signed by John Ruskin in favour of the "Palestinian Restoration Fund"; a tract entitled "Peace on Earth" arguing for the purchase of Palestine for the Government of the United Nations of Earth; and correspondence written by Monk to Hunt, again regarding Palestine and related spiritual subjects.

Source of supplied title proper: Title based on contents of the fonds.
Related material: The Curatorial Department of the National Gallery of Canada has files regarding William Holman Hunt's portrait of Monk.

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Index Terms

	Names:
		Monk, Henry Wentworth, 1827-1896
	Document Types:
		Articles.
		Correspondence.

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Henry Wentworth Monk fonds:

Finding Aid