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Correspondence : miscellaneous.
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Name of creator
Biographical history
William Bruce Dendy, Canadian architectural historian, was born in Edmonton, Alberta in 1948 and died May 29, 1993 in Toronto, Ontario. Dendy graduated from the University of Toronto in 1971, received a B.A. in Architectural History from Cambridge University in 1973, and in 1979 received two Masters degrees in architectural history, one from the University of Cambridge, and one from Columbia University in New York. He worked as an architectural historian for the Toronto Historical Board from 1973 until 1976, taught Canadian architectural history at the University of Toronto, at the University of Waterloo, at Carleton University in Ottawa, at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in Toronto, and at the Toronto Urban Studies Centre. Dendy also worked on a consultancy basis as architectural historian to many Toronto-based architectural firms, developers, and government agencies, and also led architectural walking tours of Toronto.
Dendy's two published works, Lost Toronto (1978) and Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons, and History (1986), were both published by the Oxford University Press and both won Toronto Book Awards. In 1993 Dendy was awarded an honorary membership in the Ontario Association of Architects, and in the same year he was given an Allied Arts Award for his lectures and books on historical architecture.
(Sources: Freedman, Adele. "A Life's Work: The William Dendy Collection", University of Waterloo Alumni Magazine (spring 1995): 11-15; "Historian Won 2 Toronto Awards", The Globe and Mail, Monday, 31 May 1993; Hume, Christopher. "Architectural Historian's Death a Significant Loss", Toronto Star, Tuesday, 1 June 1993, sec. B., p. 6; "Will Bequest Establishes the William Dendy Collection", Insights (spring 1995): 1-2.)
Custodial history
Scope and content
Includes untitled loose leaf material in the form of correspondence received by Dendy over the period 1977-1991.
A considerable amount of the correspondence in this file relates to Dendy's professional employment including his teaching work at the University of Toronto, at the University of Waterloo, at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, and at the Toronto Urban Studies Centre. Other correspondence relates to walking tours of Toronto given by Dendy, as well as to Dendy's proposed exhibition "The Architecture of Forest Hill" submitted to the Department of the City Clerk of the City of Toronto in 1991. Talks, presentations, and lectures given by Dendy at various universities, at public libraries, at the Toronto Historical Board, at the Architectural Conservancy Toronto, and at other places form the subject of some of the other correspondence contained in this file. Other correspondence, much of it with Oxford University Press Canada, relates to Dendy and Kilbourn's publication of Toronto Observed and to Dendy's proposed publication of a book re the history of architecture in Canada. The awards received by Dendy over the course of his life form another theme of this correspondence. These awards include the university scholarships awarded to Dendy by the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation for his doctoral studies at Columbia University, New York, as well as his receipt of an Award of Merit from the Toronto Historical Board in 1988 for Toronto Observed. Finally, some letters relate to Dendy's activities as a member of various organisations including the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canda, the Society of Architectural Historians, and as a member of the City of Toronto Planning Advisory Committee.
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Correspondence in this file is arranged in chronological order.