Fonds F2121 - William Morley Punshon fonds

The fonds consists of four accruals. This first was a set of three volumes, kept by Punshon of his daily activities, speaking commitments and encounters of his European tours and his trip to British Columbia. The first volume contains records of two European trips, one from September through November of 1865, the second from a trip in May and June of 1866. The second volume records a European trip in September and October of 1867. The third journal chronicles a return journey made between Toronto and British Columbia from March through May of 1871, partially through the United States. It chronicles a a meeting with Brigham Young in Salt Lake City, travels through California, encounters in Nanaimo with the local Indigenous community, and journeys to New Westminster, Fort Hope and Fort Yale. All of the journals are illustrated by photographs, newspaper clippings, pressed leaves, flowers and plants of the various areas. The second addition to this fonds were two photocopied letters to J. C. Aikens detailing Punshon's desire to send a missionary to the Red River Rebellion in Manitoba and another from two years later in 1872 outlining his thoughts about the province. The third accrual is a lithograph of Punshon from the World Illustrated news. The fourth accrual is another travel journal that curiously covers the exact same time period as the May through June 1866 journal in the first accrual, with entries and photographs from the same journey with slightly different phrasing or inclusions. A handwritten copy or predecessor.