Fonds MG 4169 - Sophy L. Elliott Fonds

1.7 m of textual records
170 sketches
3 scrapbooks
170 photographs
120 negatives

The fonds documents the role of an active, involved community leader, specifically with a focus in Montreal. The fonds consists of correspondence (1901-1962); undated manuscripts, poems and other writings; drafts of articles (including ‘Women Pioneers of North America’, ‘Saints, Sinners and Settlers’, ‘The Mock Marriage’); sketch books and loose sketches (charcoal, pencil, ink, and watercolor); newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, historical notes and Elliot’s collections of religious and tourism brochures and postcards. Significant is Sophy’s correspondence with her sister Mona Elliott, a nurse serving in a British unit during World War I and largely unidentified photographs of Mona Elliot of WWI hospital staff. Also included are volumes of The Beaver (“Canada’s Magazine of the North”).

The scrapbooks illustrate the emergence of the Women’s Volunteer Reserve Corps (known as the Canadian Beavers) in Montreal and Sophy Elliot’s association as acting commanding officer with the organization’s rank of major in 1940.

Photographs (portraits) of Sophy Elliot have been described as part of the University Archives photograph collection. Photographs of Elliot family and Mona Elliot’s WWI hospital remain with the textual records.