Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Patience Josephine Ruth (Jo) Vellacott fonds
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Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
RC0935
Edition area
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Class of material specific details area
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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Ca. 1923-2019; predominant 1950-2010. (Creation)
- Creator
- Vellacott, Patience Josephine Ruth (Jo)
Physical description area
Physical description
3.5 metres of textual records
Approx. 463 photographs
49 items of audio-visual material
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Jo Vellacott was a British-Canadian historian, professor, feminist, Quaker, and peace activist. She was born in Plymouth, England on 20 April 1922 to Harold F. Vellacott, a surgeon, and Josephine Sempill. She attended the University of Oxford and, after pausing her studies to work as an aircraft mechanic during the Second World War, graduated with a Master of Arts in 1947. She would then move to South Africa, where she met and married Peter Newberry in 1950. In South Africa she had two children, Mary and Douglas, before returning to the United Kingdom, where they had their daughter Susan. The family emigrated to Canada in 1955, where Peter would join the Air Force and Jo worked as a schoolteacher. She then attended the University of Toronto, where she received a Master of Arts in History in 1965, and McMaster University, where she received her PhD in 1975.
Vellacott and Peter would separate in 1976, and divorce in 1979. She took Fellowships in the United Kingdom for several years, before becoming the Scholar-in-Residence at Queen’s University in Kingston, where she then became Assistant to the Dean of Women. Following her departure from Queen’s, she worked for several years at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University in Montreal, retiring in 1987, and becoming an independent scholar.
Vellacott focused much of her career on women’s history, feminism, pacifism, and Quakerism. A Quaker since her 40s, she was active in the Thousand Islands Monthly Meeting near Kingston, and was a longtime peace activist. She wrote several books and dozens of articles on topics including pacifism, Bertrand Russell, women and politics, and more. She moved to Toronto, where she died in 2019.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The Jo Vellacott fonds contains extensive documentation regarding Vellacott’s work as a historian of women, feminism, pacifism, and Bertrand Russell, both as an academic at several Canadian universities, as well as her work as an independent scholar. The fonds contains a significant amount of correspondence, both personal and professional, which spans almost the entirety of Vellacott’s life. Fonds also contains materials relating to Vellacott’s education, particularly her PhD work at McMaster University, and much of her personal and scholarly writings. It also contains materials relating to Vellacott’s Quakerism and involvement with the Thousand Island Monthly Meetings, as well as photographs of Vellacott and paintings and sketches she made.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated by Mary Newberry, Vellacott’s daughter, in 2022.
Arrangement
Fonds is organized into 6 series, which was roughly the order in which the materials were received. Duplicates were removed, and duplicate files were merged.
Series 1: Correspondence, 1935 – 2017. 1 metre of textual records.
Series 2: Personal, 1946 – 2017. 6cm of textual records.
Series 3: Education and Professional Career, 1939 – 1989. 24cm of textual records.
Series 4: Writing, Publications, and Scholarly Activities, 1942 – 2017. 36cm of textual records.
Series 5: Activism and Quakerism, 1966 – 2012. 16 cm of textual records.
Series 6: Photographs, Postcards, and Art. 30 cm.
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Correspondence with Susan “Soo” Newberry is embargoed until 31 December 2073 (Box 4, file 1).
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
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Associated materials
Accruals
Further accruals are not expected.
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Dates of creation, revision and deletion
K. Pugh, 1st accrual, 2023.