Perlin, Rae

• Main Author: Walsh, Greg
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/ead/id/70

Rae Perlin first deposited papers at Archives and Special Collections in 1983. A second deposit of photographic material, collected by Anne Hart, followed in 1994. The largest deposit was made by John Perlin on March 25, 1998. The papers were generated during the years 1910 to 1997 and detail various aspects of her life, particularly her art activities including oil painting, watercolour and sketching.This collection allows researchers to examine the artistic styles of Rae Perlin and see how her travels and studies were reflected in her artworks. There are sketchbooks and drawings done by Perlin that are exclusive to this collection. These were done by Perlin all over the world, as were the journals and diaries that are included in the collection. Both the sketches and the journals provide a wealth of information on the artist as well as a record of the Perlin family's daily and yearly activities. The journals and diaries, in particular, offer a valuable glimpse of a Jewish family functioning in a Predominantly non-Jewish environment as the Perlins did in St. John's. It is not only the information on Perlin's artistic endeavours that is important however. There are literary materials relating to the publication of Not a Still Life: The Art and Writings of Rae Perlin, which was compiled and edited by Marian Francis White and published by Killick Press of St.John's in 1991. There are notes, plans and a draft of the book, as well as correspondence with publishers and bookstores. The collection contains Perlin's correspondence with charities, religious groups, politicians and many non-government agencies, addressing a variety of causes. This correspondence reveals much about her personal character, through the causes that she remained committed to for many years. In addition to literary and personal papers, there are photographs dating from 1920. These show Perlin in a variety of places, ranging from Guelph, Ontario to Placentia, Newfoundland. They contain images of a youthful Rae Perlin, as well as her in later ...