TABLE OF CONTENTS

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketch

Scope and Contents

Index Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Contact Information

Box List

Margaret Bailey fonds:

Finding Aid

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Biographical Sketch

Margaret Agnes Bailey was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1906 and graduated from the Ottawa Ladies College in 1923. She obtained library qualifications from Queen's University in 1926 and the following year attended the University of New Brunswick. When the Bank of Canada was formed in 1934, Bailey obtained employment at that institution. She remains its longest living employee. Bailey received the Centennial Medal for service to Canada in 1967. She retired in 1977 and a short time later became a docent at the National Gallery of Canada. Bailey was a passionate supporter of the National Gallery and developed particular interests in the British designer William Morris (1786-1858) and the American designers Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1858-1924) and Charles E. Prendergast (1868-1948). She developed a sizeable art research library which is now the Margaret A. Bailey collection at the Rockcliffe Public Library. In 1990, Bailey donated a rare copy of art critic Donald Buchanan's (1908-1966) book James Wilson Morrice (1947) to the National Gallery of Canada Library. The book is annotated by Kathleen Fenwick (1901-1973), former Curator of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery of Canada. Bailey made many trips to Europe and, in later years, to numerous special exhibitions in the United States.

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Scope and Contents

Fonds consists of biographical material (including identification, library, and membership cards, a passport, programmes, newspaper clippings, publications (University of New Brunswick and Bank of Canada), Bailey's Centennial Medal and certificate, and a photograph of Bailey's graduating class at the Ottawa Ladies College. There is also correspondence between Bailey and various individuals, including diplomats Roderick Bell and Sue McNee, Sally and Bruce Bailey, friends Stuart and Mary Robertson, Jill Bobak, Ruth Wilson, and the National Gallery of Canada. Correspondence (1952-1994; 1993-1994 predominant) touches upon art and personal matters. Material related to Bailey's acquisition of books for her library, membership lists for the William Morris Society and the Friends of the National Gallery of Canada, and papers written by Bailey (on Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), Robert Field (1769-1819), Mark Rothko (1903-1970), and William Morris) also form part of the fonds. The fonds includes a daily diary from 1994, as well as a number of travel diaries and souvenirs from Bailey's travels. The correspondence includes photographs from relatives and friends, including three photographs of dishes and a baby photograph of Brandon Bailey, 1994.

Source of supplied title proper: Title based on contents of fonds.

Immediate source of acquisition: Donated to the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives by National Gallery of Canada Docent Archivist, Dawn Logan, 1995.

Terms governing use and reproduction: Permission to reproduce or publish material from the Margaret Bailey fonds must be obtained from the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.

Finding aids: Box list available.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Margaret Bailey fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.

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Contact Information

Reference Services
Library and Archives 
National Gallery of Canada 
380 Sussex Drive 
Ottawa, Ontario 
K1N 9N4 

T 613-714-6000 ext. 6323 

[email protected]

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Box List

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