Fonds MsC-195 - Peter Culley fonds

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Peter Culley fonds

General material designation

  • Textual records
  • Photographic materials
  • Moving images
  • Sound recordings

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Level of description

Fonds

Reference code

MsC-195

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

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Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • 1960-2015 (Creation)

Physical description area

Physical description

3 m of textual records
446 photographs: b&w negatives
222 photographs: col slides
73 photographs: col prints
24 photographs: b&w negs
11 photographs: b&w prints

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(15 August 1958 - 10 April 2015)

Biographical history

Peter Culley was a Canadian poet, art critic, and photographer. He grew up on Royal Canadian Air Force bases in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Scotland and lived in Nanaimo BC since 1972. He authored numerous books of poetry, including Twenty-one (Oolichan Books, 1980) Fruit Dots (Tsunami Editions, 1985), Natural History (Fissure Books, 1986), The Climax Forest (Leech Books, 1995), and his Hammertown trilogy: Hammertown (New Star Books, 2003), The Age of Briggs and Stratton (New Star Books, 2008), and Parkway (New Star Books, 2013). As an art critic, he wrote extensively on Stan Douglas, Roy Arden, Kelly Wood, and Geoffrey Farmer, among other artists. His art criticism was published in numerous books and magazine. He was also the author of To the Dogs (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2008), an essay on the relationships between people and dogs, illustrated with photographs. Peter Culley was involved with many writing scenes, including the Kootenay School of Writing in Vancouver, the Nanaimo poetry scene and poetry circles throughout North America.

Custodial history

Records were in the custody of Daphne Samuel until 2015 when they were purchased by Special Collections and Rare Books.

Scope and content

The fonds consists of materials related to Culley's writing, curatorial and editorial work, and includes notebooks, manuscripts, reference materials, proofs, correspondence, ephemera, photographs, and negatives. The fonds also includes a diary, manuscripts by others, magazines, and Vancouver International Film Festival programs.
The fonds has been arranged by the archivist into 9 series:
Writing (Series 1)
Works by others (Series 2)
Correspondence (Series 3)
Personal (Series 4)
Editorial and curatorial (Series 5)
Reference material (Series 6)
Ephemera (Series 7)
Photographs (Series 8)
Biographical information (Series 9)

Notes area

Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

Arrangement

The received order of the materials has been maintained and the arrangement has been imposed by the archivist. The arrangement of the materials prior arriving at Special Collections was haphazard, the result of periodic accumulations of material in bags and boxes. The materials were stored in various locations throughout the house, including the basement. There was no evidence of any intentional or systematic organization.

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    Script of material

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      Rules or conventions

      RAD July 2008 edition.

      Status

      Draft

      Level of detail

      Full

      Dates of creation, revision and deletion

      April 2022: Arrangement and description completed (Alexandra Wieland).

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        Script of description

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          Accession area