Title and statement of responsibility area
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- Source of title proper: Title based on content of the fonds.
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Physical description
ca. 23 m of textual records
21 computer disks
ca. 5000 negatives
ca. 900 photographs
ca. 40,000 slides
1 videocassette
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Archival description area
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.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of materials documenting William Dendy's life and career as an architectural historian including university course notes, research material for published works, research material on the history of Canadian architecture and other research interests such as Forest Hill, Hamilton, the architects Frank Darling and William Somerville, and the Massey family. Some materials relate to Dendy's teaching activities, Toronto walking tours and consultancy projects.
Also present are articles, card files, clippings, correspondence, electronic records, ephemera, manuscripts, maps, manuscript and typescript notes, as well as photographs, negatives, and approximately 40,000 slides (including more than 17,000 images of Canadian architecture, urban space, and landscape). The slides were taken by Dendy and are each individually identified by him.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated in 1993 by Dendy's estate.
Arrangement
Arranged in eleven series:
- 1. Biographical;
- 2. Personal and Professional;
- 3. Works by;
- 4. Research and Writing;
- 5. Research: Card Files;
- 6. Research: Electronic Files;
- 7. Research: Photographs and Negatives;
- 8. Slides;
- 9. Videocassettes;
- 10. Artifacts;
- 11. Graphic.
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Select items are available online via the Waterloo Digital Library
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Copyright University of Waterloo Library.
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General note
Article "A Life's Work: The William Dendy Collection" by Adele Freedman appeared on Pages 11-15 of the Spring 1995 edition of the University of Waterloo Alumni Magazine.