Roy Fleming collection
1900-1915
- Collection Overview
- Biographical note
- Scope and Contents of Collection
- Administrative Information
- Related Materials
- Keywords for Searching Related Subjects
- Collection Inventory
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Guide to the Roy Fleming student work, 1900-1915
Collection Overview
- Repository
- Kellen Design Archives
- Creator
- Fleming, Roy F., 1879-1958
- Title
- Roy Fleming collection, 1900-1915
- Extent
- 0.4 linear ft: 1 box, 4 folders
- Summary
- Canadian elementary school teacher Roy F. Fleming (1878-1958) produced the notebook and drawing in this collection while attending the New York School of Art between 1902 and 1907. Fleming's notes are accompanied by detailed pen and ink sketches illustrating lectures by Frank Alvah Parsons, William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, and others. The collection also includes a 1902 photograph of Fleming, his diploma, and a color chart created for art instruction.
Biographical note
Roy Franklin Fleming was born in 1878 or 1879 in Derby Township, Ontario. He studied to become an elementary school teacher and, at the age of 17, passed his Province of Ontario Education Department examinations. Between 1896 and 1900, Fleming taught at various schools in Ontario until enrolling in the Toronto Normal School for a year. He attended Kingston Art School for seven months in 1902-1903 and simultaneously served as a school principal in that city until 1904.
In 1905, Fleming left Ontario to study at the New York School of Art (later, Parsons The New School for Design), where his teachers and lecturers included William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, and Frank Alvah Parsons. He joined the Art Students League and attended classes at the DeWitt Clinton Night Technical School, a pioneering educational institution that had opened in 1897. Fleming earned a certificate in Normal Art Training from the New York School of Art in June 1907. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Ontario to serve as drawing master of the Normal School of Ottawa, and taught there until his retirement in 1940. The Normal School of Ottawa eventually became the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa.
During his tenure at the Normal School, Fleming was involved in a range of other activities. He lectured at the University of Toronto and other schools throughout the province; edited art textbooks at the behest of the government of Ontario; and praticed carpentry, building houses for himself and his brother. An amateur historian, Fleming also wrote about Ontario's history and investigated a shipwreck for the Canadian Department of Public Works.
Roy F. Fleming died in 1958.
Scope and Contents of Collection
The Roy Fleming collection includes his 1907 diploma from the New York School of Fine Art, an illustrated notebook, a photographic portrait, a drawing, and an intricate color chart developed by Fleming for art instruction. The drawing, which depicts a woman watering a garden, is signed and dated by Fleming with a notation that it was created while he was a student at the New York School of Fine Art.
With entries dated between 1900 and 1907, the notebook, "Composition Scenes Illustrations Lectures," features lecture notes accompanied by diagrams, quick sketches, caricatures, doodles, and a color wheel. Many of the identified entries are from Frank Alvah Parson's lectures on composition, art history, and psychology. In some entries, Fleming transcribes lectures in the words of the lecturer, affording a direct glimpse at distinctive teaching approaches and philosophies. In addition to Parsons, lecturers include Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase, and Edward Penfield at the New York School of Art, and Henry H. Davis, Daniel A. Huebsch and others at venues around New York City, including the YMCA, Cooper Union, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Some notes appear to have been made in preparation for tests or exams focusing on art education.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Kellen Design Archives October 29, 2010
66 5th Ave./lobby level/
New York, NY, 10011
212.229.5942
archivist@newschool.edu
Use Restrictions
To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the Kellen Design Archives. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Donated by Virginia Moore, Fleming's great-granddaughter, 2005.
Related Materials
The Roy F. Fleming fonds are held by the Library and Archives of Canada. These records primarily relate to his role as an amateur historian.
Keywords for Searching Related Subjects
Corporate Name(s)
- New York School of Art.
Genre(s)
- Lecture notes.
- Sketchbooks.
- Visual aids (education tools).
Personal Name(s)
- Chase, William Merritt, 1849-1916
- Henri, Robert, 1865-1929
- Parsons, Frank Alvah, 1868-1930
- Penfield, Edward, 1866-1925
Subject(s)
- Art teachers -- Canada -- 20th century.
- Art -- Philosophy.
- Art -- Study and teaching.
Collection Inventory
| Title | Box | Folder | ||
| Diploma from New York School of Art, 1907 Jun | k_OSx-3 | 4 | ||
| Drawing, 1907 Jan | k_OSxx-2 | 3 | ||
| Notebook, 1900-1907 | 1 | -- | ||
| Portrait, 1902 Aug | k_1 | 9 | ||
| Six Colour System Chart, 1915 | k_OSx-3 | 1 | ||