File contains art education booklets from Arthur Lismer's collection entitled Drawing (Toronto : Ontario Dept. of Education, 1927) (Art bulletin ; no 2), and Art Education (London : His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1946) (Ministry of Education pamphlet ; no. 6).
File contains a notice of the 1926 unveiling of Tom Thomson's painting The Drive at the Ontario Agricultural College (Guelph, Ont.), at which Arthur Lismer was principal speaker; an annotated picture postcard entitled "The Old School House Leith, Ontario," where Thomson went to school; clippings (1946-1956) from Canadian serials about Tom Thomson; a notice of an exhibition (1969) of Thomson paintings at the Tom Thomson Memorial Gallery (Owen Sound, Ont.). The file also includes a photocopy of a letter to Marjorie Lismer Bridges (1973) about a photo of her father with Tom Thomson; and a photocopy of an article in The Studio (1919) about Thomson, both probably made in the 1970s.
File contains an offprint of an article in Canadian Affairs (1944) by Canadian painter Barker Fairley; and other material.
British art schools exhibition correspondence
File contains correspondence between Lismer, art consultant Robert Martin (London, England) and representatives of art schools and institutions in Canada regarding a proposed travelling exhibition of artworks by students in art schools in Britain in 1922.
Miscellaneous passive correspondence
File contains correspondence received by Lismer between 1921 and 1965 from various correspondents including Vincent Massey, Lewis Mumford, Barker Fairley, Marius Barbeau, Leo Mol and others; also from publishers, universities, art associations, galleries and schools. Some leaves have pen or pencil sketches on verso.
National Gallery of Canada correspondence
File contains correspondence to Arthur Lismer in Toronto and elsewhere from the Director of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Eric Brown, his assistant H.O. (Harry Orr) McCurry and others between 1920 and 1956. The letters, some including pencil sketches, discuss Lismer
Miscellaneous active correspondence
File contains manuscript correspondence of Lismer to Eric Brown, officials at the Ontario College of Art, and others, largely unfinished and unsent, on art education and other subjects.
File contains a manuscript essay by Arthur Lismer entitled "The appreciation of pictures"; typescript or carbon copies of "Letters to African teachers of Bechuanaland," and "Suggestions for a proposed syllabus for the teaching of art in [South African] native schools"; and a mimeograph copy of five chapters of "The teaching of art in normal primary & secondary schools [in the Transvaal]."
File contains largely unfinished manuscript notes by Lismer on various art subjects, including “Calder” and ‘The meaning of beauty.”
Arts and Letters Club memorabilia
File contains 50th (1958) and 60th (1968) anniversary commemorative booklets of the Arts and Letters Club (Toronto); sheets (2) with pen sketches by Lismer on verso of song lyrics; and a play programme (1911).