Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Graphic material
- Textual record
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Repository
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)
-
[187?] - 1988; predominant 1900-1927 (Creation)
- Creator
- Matthews, Robertson, 1880 - 1972
Physical description area
Physical description
2.29 m of textual records and other material
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
Robertson Matthews was born in 1880 in Yorkville, son of Reverend Matthew Henry Matthews and his second wife Naomi Dodds. Mechanically inclined as a young man, Matthews trained at the Williams Machinery Plant, where he developed a lifelong interest in engines and mechanical inventions. Matthews travelled extensively in his youth in British Columbia, Australia, and England. After attending Allegeny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania (1902-1903), he continued on to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York to complete his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering. In 1908, Matthews joined the Faculty of Engineering at Cornell, later becoming a full Professor. In 1913, he married Ethel Dodds. He left Cornell in 1917 to join the U.S. Government at Wilmington, Delaware, until 1921 when he became an advisor on the internal combustion engine at Langley Field, Virginia. In 1924, Matthews joined the Edison Company in Detroit to work on developments in electric heating. Matthews returned to Bolton in 1931 to care for his mother and to convalesce following a serious automobile accident. During the next forty years, Matthews experimented with hydroponics, kept daily diaries, and wrote regularly to local and American newspapers and contributed essays on technical aspects to periodicals. He published a work of short fiction entitled "His Lost Chord: glimpses of man's deepest emotion in restraint" in 1959. After Ethel's death in 1958, Matthews lived alone until 1967 when he moved into Peel Manor Home for the Aged, where he died on March 3, 1972 at the age of 92.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of graphic and textual records created and collected by Robertson Matthews as well as other family members. The fonds has been arranged in series determined by subject and form of record. Series include photographs, correspondence, diaries, engineering records, literary records, personal records, Matthews family legal records and Matthew H. Matthews records.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
The Albion-Bolton Historical Society transferred records to the Region of Peel Archives accessioned as 1978.120, 1982.139, and 1989.040. Robertson Matthew's nephew made two donations to the fonds, 1988.090 and 1989.063. Legal title to these later accessions rests with the Region of Peel Archives.
Accession 1978.120 also includes artifactual material, however those items have been transferred to PAMA's museum.
Arrangement
Language of material
- angličtina
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Glass plate negatives and 35 mm negatives have been contact printed. Photographic reproductions of graphic records are available where permitted by copyright.
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Print finding aid available in the reading room.
Associated materials
Accruals
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
- North America » Canada » Ontario » Peel, County of » Albion (Township, Ont.) » Bolton
- North America » Canada » Ontario » Peel, County of » Albion (Township, Ont.)
- North America » Canada » Ontario » York, Regional Municipality of » King, Township of
- North America » Canada » Ontario » Muskoka, District Municipality of
- North America » United States of America (USA) » Michigan
- North America » United States of America (USA) » New York
- North America » United States of America (USA) » Virginia (state)