TABLE OF CONTENTS
Molly Pulver Ungar fonds:
Finding Aid
Collection Summary |
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| Title: | Molly Pulver Ungar fonds. | |
| Dates: | – 1933-1942, 1986, 1992-1995. | |
| Quantity: | – 16 cm of textual records and 111 photographs. | |
Biographical Sketch
Molly Pulver Ungar was born in Romania in 1946, and moved the following year to Barbados with her parents. In 1955 she immigrated to Venezuela with her family, spending two years there before settling in Montreal. As a child, Ungar showed artistic talent and was enrolled in art classes at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where Arthur Lismer (1885-1969) was one of her instructors in Life Class. Graduating from high school in 1962, Ungar studied at Sir George Williams School of Art under Allan Harrison (1911-1988) and Richard Billmeier (b. 1921). In 1966, after working at various temporary positions in order to save money, she and her partner, Robert Ungar, spent three months hitchhiking in Europe, before moving to Israel for two years. They returned to Montreal as a married couple in 1968, and Molly worked as a commercial artist at various printing presses until starting her own freelance graphic arts studio in 1975. In 1978 Molly moved with her husband to Hamilton, Ontario. Four years later she entered the entered the Art History program at McMaster University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Art History and History in 1988, and a Masters in History the following year. For her undergraduate thesis, she wrote a paper entitled "Intent and Destiny: The Role of Personal Choices and Political Forces in the Life and Art of John Lyman." The primary source for this research was Lyman's diary, where he listed the names of persons who had been present at his home on two separate occasions in the 1930s. This marked the beginning of her research into Lyman and his milieu, culminating in her dissertation, The Last Ulysseans: Culture and Modernism in Montreal: 1930-1939 (Department of History, York University, 2003). After obtaining her Ph.D., Ungar and her husband returned to Montreal, where she worked as a sessional instructor at Concordia University and Bishop's University (Lennoxville) until 2005, when she accepted a permanent position in the History Department at University College of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Molly retired as a university professor in 2017. In 2020 her dissertation on Lyman and his circle was published by Academia Press in Washington, D.C.
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Scope and Content
The fonds consists of research material gathered by Molly Pulver Ungar for her dissertation, The Last Ulysseans: Culture and Modernism in Montreal: 1930-1939 (York University, 2003). Included are drafts of Ungar's dissertation; correspondence from friends and acquaintances of the artist John Lyman (1886-1967), a central figure in Unger's work; notes from interviews with Lyman's colleagues; and documentation relating to the career of Jean C. Lallemand (1898-1987), a Montreal industrialist, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. Photographs in the fonds include several by Ungar showing the Montreal homes of artists John Lyman, Allan Harrison, Edwin Holgate (1892-1977), Frank Scott (1899-1985), Marian Scott (1906-1993), and others. Also included are copy images of items in Lallemand's photograph album.
Source of title proper: Supplied title based on contents of the collection.
Immediate source of acquisition: Donated to the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives by Molly Pulver Ungar in 2020.
Physical description: Photographs include 58 colour photographs and 53 colour negatives.
Terms governing use and reproduction: For permission to reproduce or publish material from the Molly Pulver Ungar fonds, a written request must be made to the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
Finding aids: Fonds level description available.
Accruals: No further accruals are expected.
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Index Terms |
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| Names: | ||
| Harrison, Allan, 1911-1988 | ||
| Lallemand, Jean C., 1898-1987 | ||
| Lyman, John, 1886-1967 | ||
| Ungar, Molly Pulver, 1946- | ||
| Document Types: | ||
| Correspondence. | ||
| Interviews. | ||
| Photographs. | ||
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Administrative Information
Processing Information
Collection processed and finding aid prepared by Philip Dombowsky in 2021.
Preferred Citation
[Title of item], Molly Pulver Ungar fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
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Contact Information
☎ 613-714-6000 ext. 6323
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Box List
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
| Box 1 | File 1 | Dissertation – Last draft | |||||||||||
| File 2 | Dissertation – Drafts with comments by Ramsay Cook | ||||||||||||
| File 3 | Dissertation – Photographs *note: file contains 32 colour photographs and 34 colour negatives depicting homes of various artists, including John Lyman, Allan Harrison, Edwin Holgate, and Frank and Marian Scott | ||||||||||||
| File 4 | Correspondence (1986, 1992-1995) *note: file includes letters from Florence Bird, Richard Bolton, Madeleine Rocheleau Boyer, Carol Bièler Brettell, Ann Cosgrove, Sandra Djwa, Allan Harrison, Wendell MacLeod, Aimé Pelletier, and Marian Scott | ||||||||||||
| File 5 | Interview notes – Jacques Bièler (1994) | ||||||||||||
| File 6 | Interview notes – Ted Bièler (1993) | ||||||||||||
| File 7 | Interview notes – Florence Bird (1992) | ||||||||||||
| File 8 | Interview notes – Richard Bolton (1994) | ||||||||||||
| File 9 | Interview notes – Madeleine Boyer (1993) *note: file includes 3 colour photographs showing a portrait of Madeleine Boyer by John Lyman | ||||||||||||
| File 10 | Interview notes – Stanley Cosgrove | ||||||||||||
| File 11 | Interview notes – Danielle Dionne | ||||||||||||
| File 12 | Interview notes – Alison Gordon (1993) | ||||||||||||
| File 13 | Interview notes – Lois Gordon (1993) | ||||||||||||
| File 14 | Interview notes – Alexander Gyemi (1993) | ||||||||||||
| File 15 | Interview notes – Ruth Jackson (1993) | ||||||||||||
| File 16 | Interview notes – Paul Kastel (1993) *note: file includes 2 colour photographs | ||||||||||||
| File 17 | Interview notes – Malcolm Lapointe (1992) | ||||||||||||
| File 18 | Interview notes – Wendell MacLeod | ||||||||||||
| File 19 | Interview notes – Harry Mayerovitch | ||||||||||||
| File 20 | Interview notes – Mimi Morgan (1993) *note: file includes 3 colour photographs | ||||||||||||
| File 21 | Interview notes – Louis Muhlstock (1993) | ||||||||||||
| File 22 | Interview notes – Marian Roberts (1992) | ||||||||||||
| File 23 | Interview notes – Marian Scott (1992) | ||||||||||||
| File 24 | Interview notes – Jori Smith | ||||||||||||
| File 25 | Interview notes – Richard Vaskelis (1992) | ||||||||||||
| File 26 | Interview notes – Herbert Whittaker (1994) | ||||||||||||
| File 27 | Copy of Jean C. Lallemand's Travel Diary, 1933 | ||||||||||||
| File 28 | Copy of Jean C. Lallemand's Guest Book, 1934-1942 | ||||||||||||
| File 29 | Copies of photographs from Jean C. Lallemand's photograph album *note: file contains 18 colour photographs and 19 colour negatives | ||||||||||||
| File 30 | Jean C. Lallemand – Interview with Aimé Pelletier | ||||||||||||
| File 31 | Jean C. Lallemand – Interview with John Russell | ||||||||||||
| File 32 | Jean C. Lallemand – Interview with John Wiseman | ||||||||||||
| File 33 | Copy of handwritten history of the Bièler family | ||||||||||||
| File 34 | A People's History of Canada – Notes | ||||||||||||
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