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Arthur W. Roebuck fonds
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Fonds
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Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1870-1969 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
16 m of textual records
118 photographs
2 drawings
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Arthur Wentworth Roebuck (1878-1971) was a newspaper owner and provincial and federal Liberal politician active in Ontario between 1934 and 1940.
He was born at Hamilton, Ontario on February 28, 1878 to Henry Simpson Roebuck and Lydia Abigail Macklem. He worked at a variety of commercial enterprises and the Toronto Daily Star, and then became owner of the Temiskaming Herald and the Cobalt Citizen, which he sold in 1915 when he decided to study law. He was called to the bar in 1917.
Roebuck ran unsuccessfully for office four times, representing different parties: as a Liberal in the riding of Temiskaming in the Ontario elections of 1911 and 1914; in 1917 as an Independent Labour Party candidate in the federal election; and in 1923 as a United Farmers of Ontario candidate in the riding of East York.
He was first successfully elected as a Liberal in the provincial riding of Bellwoods in 1934, and as a member of the Hepburn Liberal administration was appointed simultaneously Attorney- General, Minister of Labour and as a Commissioner to the Hydro-Electric Power Commission. He ceased being Minister of Labour in 1935, but held onto the other positions until 1937 when a disagreement with Hepburn over the entry of a labour union into Ontario forced him to resign. In the Ontario election of 1937 he won easily, and stood as an independent Liberal in the Legislature.
Roebuck was elected to the House of Commons as a federal Liberal in 1940. In 1943 he attempted to re-enter provincial politics when he stood for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, but was unsuccessful. In 1945 he ran the federal Liberal Party campaign in Ontario, and later that year was appointed to the Senate. He died in 1971.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of personal and political records of Arthur Roebuck, including family correspondence, correspondence and subject files relating to Roebuck's political career, records arising from his time with the Hydro-Electric Power Commission, and records created during election campaigns. Personal records consist of a single large series of chronologically arranged correspondence to and from Arthur Roebuck and many other family members. The series also contains other documents, such as invitations, insurance records, club membership records, passports and clippings.
Correspondence relating to Roebuck's political career is chronologically arranged, and concerns all of Roebuck's career as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Minister in the Ontario government, Liberal Party organizer, Member of Parliament, Commissioner and Senator. Some of the correspondence is with constituents. Subject files consist of clippings, memoranda and pamphlets relating to a wide variety of subjects maintained by Roebuck.
Records relating to the Hydro-Electric Power Commission include agreements, financial statements, engineers reports, administrative documents, legal advice and litigation documents. There is also correspondence relating to the proposed cancellation of Quebec Power Companies contracts from 1935.
Records relating to election campaigns consist of campaign literature, platforms, advertisements, speeches, clippings, and press releases relating to Roebuck's election campaigns of 1911, 1914, 1917, 1923, 1934, 1937 and 1940. It also include files created while Roebuck was the Ontario Liberal Party's campaign manager in 1945 federal election.
Photographs consist of portraits of Arthur Wentworth Roebuck and other family members, and of Roebuck's activities as a member of the Ontario and Federal Governments and the Senate. Activities include a baseball game between M.P.P.s and municipal politicians from Toronto, and a visit by Roebuck and N.W. Rowell to the Government Experimental Farm, Monteith in 1912. Fonds also contains photographs of some of the most prominent individuals of the time, including: William Lyon Mackenzie, Sigmund Samuel, Mitch Hepburn, John Diefenbaker, and a 1940s banquet attended by C.D. Howe, David Croll, L. St. Laurent, Paul Martin and A.C. Hardy.
Fonds also contains two hand drawn caricatures of A.W. Roebuck.
For a more detailed description, use this link to the Archives of Ontario's descriptive database: http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PROV/PROV/REFD+F+45?SESSIONSEARCH
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Fonds was acquired by the Archives of Ontario from Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Patterson of Baltimore, Ontario, daughter and son-in-law to Arthur Roebuck. The acquisition occurred in 1972.
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No restrictions on access.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Copyright held by creator. These materials cannot be published without permission of the copyright holder.
Finding aids
For a more detailed description, use this link to the Archives of Ontario's descriptive database: http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PROV/PROV/REFD+F+45?SESSIONSEARCH