Fonds F2509 - Edith Chown Pierce fonds

Edith Chown Pierce (born Edith Georgina Chown) was born on 13 September 1890 in Kingston, Ontario. She was the daughter of Charles Douglas Chown and Elizabeth Pierce "Lilley" Conley. She married Dr. Lorne Albert Pierce on 13 September 1916 in Ottawa, Ontario. The Pierce's had two children, Elizabeth (who married Jack Robinson) and Lorne Bruce. Edith worked with her husband to amass and make the Edith and Lorne Pierce Collection of Canadiana at Queen's University one of the outstanding collections of Canadiana in the country. Edith, along with Gerald Stevens, were among the first to appreciate, seek out and preserve early Canadian glass. She died on 22 April 1954 in Kingston.

In 1954 Lorne Pierce endowed the Edith Chown Pierce Trust to augment the Edith and Lorne Pierce Collection in perpetuity. In 1957, Lorne Pierce and Gerald Stevens presented the Edith Chown Pierce and Gerald Stevens collection of Early Canadian Glass to the Royal Ontario Museum in her memory and according to her wishes.