Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
John Arnold fonds
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
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)
Physical description area
Physical description
12 cm of textual records, 6 technical drawings, and 16 photographs: b&w and col. prints
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
Biographical history
John Arnold was born in Cookstown, Ontario in 1934. He studied at the Royal Conservatory, graduating with a diploma in piano. He then went to the Ontario College of Art and Design. After graduation, he worked for Design Craft Limited, a Toronto firm that specialized in the arrangement of commercial displays in publicly sited showcases and at exhibitions. He was a senior member of the design team for the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67. At around the same time, he was also hired to head the design team of the National Museum of Science and Technology (now the Canada Science and Technology Museum). In this capacity, he designed the Crazy Kitchen with Glenda Krusberg. After this period, he worked as an independent architectural design consultant for 30 years. Among many public projects, he worked on the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta, and the RCAF Memorial Hall of Tribute at the National Aviation Museum (now Canada Aviation and Space Museum).
For the RCAF Memorial Hall of Tribute project, he played two roles: first design consultant and then artistic advisor. In his first role he was at first responsible for preparing a report for the RCAF Memorial Fund setting out guidelines for the architect for the memorial. In order to do so, he liaised with the Fund, the National Aeronautical Collection Staff, and the Architecture and Planning Division of the National Museum of Canada. In his second contract, he was to act as a liaison between the Fund, the Jury selected to judge prospective art works, the artists ultimately selected, the National Museum Corporation, the Department of Public Works, as well as the principal architect for the project.
Arnold also focused on residential architecture. He served on the Board of Directors of Heritage Ottawa and designed the logo for that organization based on the local landmark building the Aberdeen Pavilion. He was editor of the Ottawa Guide of Heritage Structures and was a member of the City of Ottawa’s Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee.
Arnold died in 2017 at the age of 83, survived by his partner of 48 years, Stephen Boissonneault.
Custodial history
John Arnold donated these archives to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in 1992.
Scope and content
The fonds includes Arnold’s records as design consultant and artistic advisor for the project to build the RCAF Memorial Hall of Tribute at the National Aviation Museum (now the Canada Aviation and Space Museum). Records include proposals by artists and architects, a draft of Arnold’s report to the RCAF Memorial Fund, technical drawings, photographs, notes on meetings and other matters, and correspondence with the different actors involved in the project. The fonds is arranged mostly in the order it was received, as reflected by the annotated preliminary inventory that was added at the end of the original files. The archivist grouped some correspondence together by the name of the correspondent, as indicated in the annotations on the inventory.
Notes area
Physical condition
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
Accruals
Alpha-numeric designations
Accession number AC0092.
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Canada Aviation and Space Museum (Subject)
- McEwen, John (Subject)
Genre access points
Control area
Description record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules or conventions
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Written by A. Torrance, 2022-08. French translation by Céline Mongeau, Laroque Lingjuistic Services, 2022-10. Entered in Archeion 2022-10.