Fonds SZE - Z. L. Szeliski Fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Z. L. Szeliski Fonds

General material designation

    Parallel title

    Other title information

    Title statements of responsibility

    Title notes

    Level of description

    Fonds

    Reference code

    CA ON00419 SZE

    Edition area

    Edition statement

    Edition statement of responsibility

    Class of material specific details area

    Statement of scale (cartographic)

    Statement of projection (cartographic)

    Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

    Statement of scale (architectural)

    Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

    Dates of creation area

    Date(s)

    • 1961-1994 (Creation)
      Creator
      Zseliski, Zdzislaw

    Physical description area

    Physical description

    5 cm of textual records and ca. 90 photographs

    Publisher's series area

    Title proper of publisher's series

    Parallel titles of publisher's series

    Other title information of publisher's series

    Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series

    Numbering within publisher's series

    Note on publisher's series

    Archival description area

    Name of creator

    (1924 - 2018-01-23)

    Biographical history

    Zdzislaw Ludwig Zseliski, known as Dick Szeliski, was born in Poland in 1924. He was a member of the Polish Underground Army and took part in the 1944 Warsaw uprising. After liberation from a prisoner of war camp, he joined the Polish Second Corps in Italy. He moved to London after the war and obtained a Civil Engineering degree before beginning his professional career in 1950 at the Bridge Design Office of British Railways. He moved to Canada in 1951 and joined the Engineering Department of Canadian National Railways (CNR). He was Senior Structural Engineer at CNR in the 1950s when the Victoria Bridge Diversion was under construction. He was promoted to Assistant Chief Engineer – Structures and became responsible for Design, Construction and Maintenance of bridges and buildings across the CN systems. At the time of his retirement in 1986, he held the post of Chief Engineer, Bridges and Structures. After his retirement from CNR, he worked as a consultant for CANAC International on several international projects. Szeliski was an active member of the Canadian Standards Association, chairing its Committee on Concrete Railway Bridges, among other roles. He gave a number of lectures of the Victoria Bridge. He married Jadwiga Mieszkowska in 1954 and they had two children. Szeliski died 23 January 2018.

    Custodial history

    The fonds was donated to the Canada Science and Technology Museum in 1999.

    Scope and content

    Fonds consists of papers, copied diagrams and articles, clippings, correspondence and photographs about rail bridges. Most of the material is about Montreal’s Victoria Bridge. For example, there is a copy of internal CN report on the design and construction of the Victoria Bridge Diversion project, 1957-1960.

    Notes area

    Physical condition

    Newspaper clippings have yellowed and become brittle with age.

    Immediate source of acquisition

    Arrangement

    Language of material

      Script of material

        Location of originals

        Availability of other formats

        Restrictions on access

        Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

        Finding aids

        Associated materials

        Related materials

        Accruals

        General note

        Related material: Szeliski also donated artifact no. 1997.0306, a CNR nameplate originally posted on the Victoria Bridge.

        Alternative identifier(s)

        Standard number

        Standard number

        Access points

        Place access points

        Name access points

        Genre access points

        Control area

        Description record identifier

        Institution identifier

        Rules or conventions

        Status

        Level of detail

        Dates of creation, revision and deletion

        Created by A. Torrance, 2019-08. French editing by Céline Mongeau, Larocque Linguistic Services, 2021-02.

        Language of description

          Script of description

            Sources

            Accession area