- A successful painter of portrait miniatures in water colour on ivory, Winnipeg-born Elizabeth Maude Macvicar's (1881-1965) output included private commissions, solo and group juried exhibitions, as well as private exhibitions of her work throughout Canada, and at least once in the United States, during a career that flourished during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Macvicar attended the Winnipeg School of Art and studied miniature painting on ivory in London, England, visiting the famous Wallace Collection of miniatures in that city, and also touring Italy. A member of the Manitoba Society of Artists, she exhibited her work in the group and juried annual exhibitions of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1922, 1923, 1925 and 1927; in the first "open exhibit" of the Manitoba Society of Artists in 1926; at a Hart House exhibition at the University of Toronto in 1930; and in numerous private exhibitions in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Ontario, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. She completed private commissions in all of these cities, as well as in Victoria, Seattle and New York. Macvicar was commissioned to paint a miniature of His Excellency, Lord Willingdon, Governor General of Canada, 1926-1931. She also enjoyed working with children and completed scores of miniature portraits on ivory of the sons and daughters of the wealthy and well-connected. She also painted miniatures of service men and women during the Second World War, as well as large water colour portraits of Canadian women in the services.
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Archives & Special Collections
Archives & Special Collections is a department of the Libraries and is located in Room 330 on the third floor of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library. Since its establishment in 1978, the Archives' mission has been to acquire, catalogue and preserve university records and special research collections which further the educational aims of the University of Manitoba, and to promote and provide wide access to them. The Archives' wide-ranging collection mandate includes the acquisition of the records of the University of Manitoba, Canadian Prairie Literary Manuscripts, the Archives of the Agricultural Experience and rare books in the areas of western Canadiana, early Arctic exploration, early Native language syllabics, spiritualism, church history and philosophy, and agriculture among others.