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PA015

Robert Van Vleit Nicholls. - 1854-1997.

Biographical sketch :
Robert Van Vleit Nicholls was born in Montreal 18 February 1913. He obtained a doctorate in chemistry at McGill University in 1936. He married Mable E. Miner in 1945 and had two daughters. He taught chemistry at McGill University until his retirement in 1973. He had a passion for railways from his early childhood and joined the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in April 1932. In 1959 he became chairman of the acquisitions committee of the Canadian Railway Museum. He was President of the Association from 1961 to 1972. In 1972? he established the Association's archives and documentation centre and was designated as its director. In 1978 he became Honourary President.
He was also the author of the book Mobility Canada published in 1978, as well as many articles on the history of Canadian railways. In addition, Dr. Nicholls was one of the major donors to the archives of the Association.
He received the Order of Canada in 1983 and an Award of Merit from the Canadian Railroad Historical Association in 1990.

Custodial history :
Fonds transferred to the Association archives by its creator.

Scope and content :
The Robert Van Vleit Nicholls fonds deals with the history of the Canadian Railroad Historical Association and Canadian railway history in general.
The fonds comprises correspondence, minutes of meetings, administrative files, management files from the Museum, charts, postcards, photographs, research files, press clippings, and files on association excursions.

Physical description : 10 m of textual material. - About 500 photographs: and negatives. - About 300 postcards.

General note : The documents in the fonds are in English. Some documents will be transferred in 1998. Documents relating to management of the Museum will be given to the Museum, with a copy kept in the archives.