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1981-1991, 2007 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
1.35 linear meters of textual records and other materials.
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Althea Cleveland Douglas (née McCoy) was born on December 25, 1926 in Moncton, New Brunswick. Her parents were George Thomas E. McCoy, a railroad executive, and Anne Robinson (Chapman) McCoy. The family relocated to Toronto, Ontario, and she obtained a senior matriculation from Branksome Hall School before moving to Montreal, Quebec, to study at McGill University. Her academic pursuits include a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, physics, and dramatic production; a Master of Arts in English and Dramatic Literature; and various courses in French language, archives/records management, and history. She married J. Creighton Douglas in 1948 (also known as Creighton Douglas). Althea worked as a costume designer for 10 years in Montreal and in New York before she began to work at McGill becoming first a lecturer in the English Department from 1947 to 1959, a Research Editor for the Burney Project in the Department of English beginning in 1960, and an Archivist for the Penfield Collection at the Neurological Institute from 1978-81. She relocated to Toronto in 1982 after Creighton started working for IMAX and opened “Althea Douglas Consultants” where she worked as an independent researcher, editor, and writer. She also began working for IMAX, at first as a part-time contractor for about three months in 1984 in order to edit a set of four standard manuals. However, as each theatre required a specialised manual to account for the host country’s technological context, a different manual was required for each system in operation. By 1985, she had edited 20 manuals and had learned to use AUTOCAD in order to streamline the development process and to create a manual that was easily updated. Her most notable works for the company included revising the manual “Design Facts (for IMAX and OMNIMAX Theatres)” and writing both “Design Considerations for an IMAX Theatre” and “Design Considerations for an OMNIMAX Theatre.” (First editions c. 1987; second editions c.1991). While employed there she traveled to Mexico, Japan, Europe, and Nigeria. She also, in her personal time, obtained a C.G.(C) Certified Genealogist designation from the Genealogical Institute of the Maritimes (1989), and worked for the national headquarters of the Girl Guides of Canada to establish an arrangement structure for their archives, a catalogue database, and to produce digital finding aids. When she closed her consulting business in 1991, she relocated to Ottawa, Ontario and worked as a professional genealogist. She has numerous publications credited to her, including “A Catalogue of the Burney Family Correspondence 1749-1878 (co-authored with Joyce Hemlow and J.M.M.Burgess), “Canadian Railway Records: A Guide for Genealogists” (co-authored with J. Creighton Douglas) including its revision and expansion, and several articles in various genealogy journals. She also was a member of the Association of Canadian Archivists, Association of Professional Genealogists (United States), Society of Genealogists (England), Ontario Genealogical Society, New Brunswick Genealogical Society, and Toronto Area Archivists Group. She won a Canadian Council Award category 6 and 7, and Canadian Council grants from 1961 through 1965.
Custodial history
Materials were donated in 2007. An initial inventory was created in 2012; archives student Leo Joy-Clark, under the supervision of archivist Adele Torrance, finalized the arrangement and descriptions of the fonds.
Scope and content
Fonds consists of textual, graphic, and digital material regarding Althea Douglas’ professional life, with a focus on her 7-year career with IMAX from 1984-1991. Records include: drafts and final copies of technical manuals; correspondence; invoices; internal memos and other publications; document translations; and technical manuals for elements developed out-of-house and incorporated into an IMAX theatre system. The computer files on 19 computer disks are AUTOCAD and Corel files for these manuals. There is also some material showing J. Creighton Douglas’ contributions to these projects, an interview between Althea Douglas and Curator Bryan Dewalt on 3 DVDs, three photographs (two of Althea and one of Creighton), and copies of both her and J. Creighton Douglas’ curricula vitae. Four ticket stubs were dissociated from the materials; they are believed to originate from France. Fonds is divided into 3 series with 30 files total; files within the series are generally arranged in chronological order.
Notes area
Physical condition
Many records are adhering to one another and care must be exercised when pulling them apart to avoid text illegibility. In some cases, documents were removed from original binders and placed directly in acid-free archival folders.
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Finding aids
A more detailed file/item-level inventory is available upon request.
Associated materials
Library and Archives Canada has a Creighton Douglas fonds (reference ID: R12389-0-X-E) with a Personal Series containing correspondence Althea Douglas authored. These materials help outline how the Douglas’s became involved in IMAX and various tasks and travel they accomplished while working for the company.
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General note
Related material: The Museum conserves many IMAX artifacts, including, for example, two projectors (catalogue numbers 1992.0598 and 2013.0291). There are items from this fonds that were transferred to the Trade Literature collection. Refer to PHOTO I3139 to find the 8 original items; photocopies of the covers were kept in the fonds in files DOU-3-013 and DOU-3-017.
General note
19 computer disks contain file extensions that the Canada Science and Technology Museum Archives is unable to open at this time. The textual material included in the file and the file-level description provide further information.
Physical description
Fonds consists of 1.35 linear metres of textual records, 3 DVDs, 3 photographs, and 19 3.5” computer disks
Alpha-numeric designations
Accession lot: AS0014.
Alpha-numeric designations
Wikidata URI: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q97325480
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- IMAX Corporation (Subject)
- Douglas, J. Creighton, 1924-2006 (Subject)
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Written by Leo Joy-Clark, 2020-03. French editing by Céline Mongeau Larocque Linguistic Services, 2020-04. Wikidata URI entered, A. Torrance, 2020-07-15.