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PA038
D.E. Blair fonds. - 1855-1965.
Biographical sketch :
David Edward Blair was born 25 July 1877. He
studied at McGill University about 1896. He
married Gertrude Esther Evans 27 September 1904
and had one daughter, Dorothy. Mrs. Evans father
was General Manager of the Quebec Railway, Light
and Power Company. After a visit to Saint-Louis in
1904 he came back with the idea and designed the
observation cars that operated on Montreal streets
from 1905. In 1922 he became superintendent of
equipment for the Montreal Tramways Company and
later, during the 1940's, General Manager.
Custodial history :
Fonds transferred to the Association archives by Norman Holland for the estate of David E. Blair in December 1969.
Scope and content :
The fonds deals with the personal life of Edward
Blair, as well as his wife's family. The fonds
also deals with the Quebec Railway, Light and
Power Company and the construction of rail lines
of the Grand Trunk Railway in Alberta, as well as
the Canadian Pacific Railway in the Canadian
west.
The fonds consists of negatives and
photographs, personal administrative documents,
his daughter's course notebooks, notarized
documents, glass plate negatives, streetcar
tickets glued to a panel, as well as
correspondence. The fonds also contains
engravings.
Physical description :
7 photograph albums: and approximately 100 loose photographs. - 0.45 m of textual materials. - Approx. 550 photographs: negatives. - Train and tramway tickets.
General note :
Title based on the contents of the fonds. Previous
number: 86-24-1 Most of the negatives are listed
and filed. The documents in the fonds are in
English. There are index cards for the photograph
albums. See Robert Van Vleit Nicholls fonds for a
speech given to the Canadian Electric Railway
Association by Blair in 1922.
The streetcar
tickets have been removed from their frame.
Last update
: 2006/10/23