UBC Library is excited to announce that the Music, Art and Architecture (MAA) Library in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre has acquired the Harry and Ann Malcolmson Photography Book Collection. The Malcolmson Photography Book Collection encompasses nearly 600 items in a variety of formats including monographs, trade publications, exhibition catalogues, photobooks and artists’ books.
“Many of the exhibition catalogues were published in limited print runs, with dates ranging from the 1950s to the 2000s. As it was developed to support their photography collection research, this collection of books has a similar focus on historic and contemporary Canadian, American and international photographers,” says Sara Ellis, Art & Visual Literacy Librarian at MAA Library, who was instrumental in bringing this collection to the library.
Notably, Canadian artists associated with the Vancouver School of photoconceptualism is a focus within the collection, as are materials published by Vancouver art institutions such the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and others.
Overhead view of select books from the collection, laid out on a table in the Ridington Room at MAA Library.
The collection, Ellis says, was first brought to her attention in 2019 by Althea Thauberger, Assistant Professor in the UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, whose connection to the Malcolmsons stemmed from Thauberger’s work as a visual artist and filmmaker.
Known as prominent collectors of art and historic photography, Harry and Ann Malcolmson met while attending the University of Toronto and married in 1958. They began collecting photography in the 1980s, after donating their first collection of paintings and sculptures to various Canadian institutions, according to Maclean’s. Harry Malcolmson, who worked as a lawyer, was also a noted art critic and regular contributor to publications such as Toronto Telegram, Saturday Night, and Canadian Art, while Ann Malcolmson, formerly a social worker, was a founding member of the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts.
Book cart with several books from the Malcolmson Collection, ready to be shelved.
The Malcolmson Collection at UBC Library stands as an important art history resource held within Canada, alongside the Malcolmson collection of photographic works that was donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in 2013.
The collection materials will be made available to library users through UBC Library’s catalogue as the books are added to MAA Library’s holdings, a process that is expected to be completed over time. Selected materials from the collection will be added to the library’s Canadian Art Exhibition Catalogue Collection, which is housed in display cabinets in the Ridington Room to preserves historically important Canadian art materials and is the most in-depth collection of its kind on the West Coast.
“The Malcolmson Collection will be of interest to faculty, students, and community members researching topics in art history, Canadian studies, critical and curatorial studies, history, and visual art, among other interdisciplinary areas,” says Ellis.
This project is part of UBC Library’s strategic direction to create and deliver responsive collections.
Learn more about our Strategic Framework.
