Sampson-Matthews Ltd. (1918-1980) was a leading and highly respected Canadian graphic art company in Toronto founded by Ernest Sampson (1887-1946), a pioneer of silkscreen printing in Canada, and Charles Matthews (1890-1990). Sampson-Matthews Ltd. followed in the footsteps of other prestigious graphic art companies, such as Grip Ltd. and Rous and Mann publishers, and attracted the very best in Canadian art. In 1926, following Franklin Carmichael 1890-1945), artist Alfred J. Casson (1892-1992) joined Sampson-Matthews Ltd., and eventually became the company's Art Director and, later, the Vice-President of the company after Sampson's sudden death in 1946. The company is best known for the Sampson-Matthews print program (1942-1963), which reproduced works by Canadian artists into high-quality silkscreen prints and distributed them across Canada and overseas.

The Sampson-Matthews print program was one of the largest public art projects in Canadian history. The program was the product of a collaboration between Charles Matthews, General Manager and Vice-President of Sampson-Matthews Ltd.; Alfred J. Casson, the Chief Designer at Sampson-Matthews Ltd. and member of the Group of Seven; H.O. McCurry (1889-1964), director of the National Gallery of Canada; and A.Y. Jackson (1882-1974), painter and member of the Group of Seven. The initial goal of the Sampson-Matthews print program was to create sponsored reproductions of Canadian paintings for display at armed forces bases and administrative offices around the world as a reminder of what they were fighting for during the Second World War. The first series of wartime prints were printed in 1942, and were approved for distribution by the Department of National Defence in 1943. This first series of prints featured works by Casson, Charles Comfort (1900-1994), Bobs Cogill Haworth (1900-1988), A.Y. Jackson, and Thoreau MacDonald (1901-1989). The later wartime prints featured works by J.E.H. MacDonald (1873-1932), Arthur Lismer (1885-1969), Franklin Carmichael (1890-1945), Tom Thomson (1877-1917), and Paraskeva Clark (1898-1986), among others. Many of the prints were sponsored by various Canadian businesses in order to cover printing costs. These wartime prints were so popular that they were also featured in art exhibitions, public schools, libraries, dentists' offices, banks, corporate offices, and in embassies and consulates across Canada and internationally. In total, there were thirty-six wartime prints by renowned Canadian artists.

After the end of the Second World War, Sampson-Matthews Ltd. encouraged the continuation of the prints program with the "Federation of Canadian Artists" series (1954-1948), the "Pulp and Paper Prints" series I, II and III (1947, 1950, 1956), the ""60 Canadian Landscapes"" series (1947-1953), the "100 Canadian Paintings" series (1953-1957), and finally, after the National Gallery of Canada ended its involvement in the program, the "Canadian Paintings" series (1957-1963). From 1945 to 1963, Sampson-Matthews Ltd., under the direction of Casson, would produce almost one hundred additional silkscreen prints featuring reproductions of works by Lawren S. Harris (1885-1970), Emily Carr (1871-1945), David Milne (1882-1953), and Naomi Jackson Groves (1910-2001), among others. Although the program ended in 1963, Sampson-Matthews Ltd. produced prints of certain designs into the 1970s if an order came to their offices.

The prints produced by Sampson-Matthews showed a mastery of the silkscreen process and used between ten to twenty different oil colours in each print. It is estimated that there were perhaps tens of thousands of prints made throughout the program's twenty-two year lifetime; although many were destroyed or damaged during the war — or from lack of care during the post-war period — there are still many that remain. The prints are credited with enhancing public knowledge of Canadian art and the national identity throughout the 1940s to 1960s, and they continue to be valued as works of art in their own right to this day. They can be found primarily in private collections around the world, as well as in public art collections, including in the Penticton Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.

The collection consists of 99 silkscreen prints, printed by Sampson-Matthews Ltd., that reproduce paintings by renowned Canadian artists; and 1 original Sampson-Matthews frame. There are 52 Sampson-Matthews silkscreens in the large format (approx. 30 x 40 inches) and 47 in the small format (approx. 20 x 27 inches). Many of the silkscreen prints are hand-signed by Alfred. J. Casson, indicating that they were amongst the original silkscreen prints made in the Sampson-Matthews prints program.

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

Immediate source of acquisition: Acquired from the original Sampson-Matthews program by the National Gallery of Canada in the 1940s and subsequently by the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives from various sources from 1999 to 2009. In 2016 the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives received a donation of an original Sampson-Matthews Ltd. frame and 12 silkscreen prints from the Estate of Murray John Waddington.

Terms governing use and reproduction: Written requests for reproduction or publishing material from the Sampson-Matthews collection must be made to the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.

Finding aids: Series level description, box list, and an item level description for the drawings, paintings, and photographs are available.

Accruals: 1943-1963, 1999-2009, and 2016. Further accruals are expected.

Associated material: Other records relating to the Sampson-Matthews collection can be found in the holdings of Library and Archives Canada, including in the Charles Andrew Graham Matthews fonds; the Alexander Young Jackson fonds; and the A.J. Casson fonds. Original paintings reproduced in the Sampson-Matthews print program can be found in public collections, such as the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the National Gallery of Canada. Other Sampson-Matthews silkscreens were reproduced from paintings in private collections or were based on specially commissioned designs for the Sampson-Matthews print program.

Related material: For more information on the collaboration between Sampson-Matthews Ltd. with the National Gallery of Canada on the Sampson-Matthews print program, see the Sampson-Matthews Ltd. material within the National Gallery of Canada fonds. The National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives' holdings also contains the H.O. McCurry fonds.