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Tom Smith fonds
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Fonds
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ca. 1900-2012 (inclusive) ; 1930s-1970s (predominant) (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
72 cm of textual and graphical material (including ca. 285 photographs, 101 negatives, 15 postcards, 22 digital prints). - 7 audio cassettes. – ca. 75 paintings and drawings. – 3 framed certificates
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Tom R. Smith is a graduate of the College of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan; he received his B.E. in 1945. His varied career has included being part of the team that built the Alaska Highway, service during World War Two, farming, and teaching in the College of Engineering. His research has had a strong focus on archaeology and local history, especially through years of involvement in the Saskatchewan Archaeological Society. He was married to Laura Carpenter, who died in 2008.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born in 1889 at Ridgeway, Iowa, to Norwegian pioneers (Ole and Henrietta Sherven), the fifth daughter of seven with a younger brother and four sisters, Olena came to a homestead 30 miles north of Watson, Saskatchewan in 1911. Olena’s interest in sketching animals at a young age led to her being enrolled in a Lutheran college in Red Wing, Minnesota in 1907, where she learned oil painting. She had previously taken a mail course doing a pen and ink perspective exercise. Her father encouraged further schooling, so she went to the Winnipeg School of Art during 1914-15 where pencil studies of the human form were taught using plaster models. She married Rutherford W. Smith sometime around 1920. In 1938, she went to the Winnipeg School of Art for a brief time; LeMoine FitzGerald, a member of the Group of Seven, was Head. Boarding with her sister on the U of S campus, she was able to get lessons from Gus Kenderdine who had been appointed the university’s first art instructor. Two copies of Kenderdine oil paintings survive from these lessons. Her first showing was held in Saskatoon. She exhibited oils “Winter” and “Autumn,” scenes from the farm. She attended the Emma Lake summer school for three seasons. Instructors included Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McCay, Reta Cowley, H.W. Wickenden, and Winona Mulcaster. In later winters at Edinburgh, Texas, Olena enjoyed doing street scenes in Mexico and some portraits in pencil. Retiring to Melfort, she continued to sketch, making notes on colours for future paintings. She died in Melfort in 1972 at the age of 83.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds includes paintings, sketches and memorabilia relating to the artistic pursuits and output of Olena (Sherven) Smith; and material relating to Tom Smith’s careers and interests, particularly archaeology and local history, as well as engineering and farming, including documentation of his job on the engineering crew for the Alaska Highway.
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There are no restrictions on access.