File LA.SC021.S1.f3 - Charles S. Band correspondence

Charles Shaw Band (1885-1969) was a Toronto business executive, philanthropist and collector of Canadian art. He was born in Thorold, Ontario and educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto. In 1914 he married Helen Huntington Warren (whose mother Sarah Trumbull Van Lennep Warren was a founder of the Art Gallery of Toronto) with whom he began collecting artworks. During his career, he worked with many Canadian firms, including Canadian Surety, Goderich Elevator and Transit Co. Ltd., Manufacturers Life Insurance, Toronto General Trust, as well as Gutta Percha and Rubber Limited of Toronto.

In addition to his business interests, Band was affiliated with various community organisations including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the John Howard Society, the Red Cross, the Art Gallery of Toronto, and the National Film Board.

Band was a friend of members of the Group of Seven, especially Lawren Harris and Fred Varley. He was President of the Art Gallery of Toronto 1945-1948 and again in 1964-1965. In 1948 he was made Officier d’Académie by the French government for his role in bringing an exhibition of French masters to Canada the previous year. The noted Collection of Mr and Mrs Charles S. Band was the subject of exhibitions in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Los Angeles and other cities. C. S. Band died in Toronto in 1969, leaving the bulk of his collection to the Art Gallery of Ontario.