Ask Us
Reuben Butchart
Fonds number:
52
Title: Reuben Butchart
Dates of Material:
1869 – 1954
Extent:
48 cm of textual records
Biographical sketch
Reuben Butchart was a Toronto writer and church periodical editor who researched and wrote about the history of the Churches of Christ (Disciples) in Canada. He served as manager and later as editor of Christian Messenger and its successor The Canadian Disciple for the period 1897–1929. During that time he was active in his local congregation, since 1923 known as Hillcrest Church of Christ, and served many years as Corresponding Secretary of the Cooperation of Disciples of Christ in Ontario. His historical research broadened in the 1940s, culminating in the publication of his pioneering work The Disciples of Christ in Canada since 1830 (1949).
The collection consists of published and unpublished material about the history of the Disciples in Canada, authored or gathered by Reuben Butchart in the course of his research and writing. The material includes some official records of organizations such as the Wellington and Ontario Co-operations of the Disciples of Christ, as well as the local Church of Christ in Guelph. Although there is a focus on Ontario churches and on the Hillcrest Church in Toronto, there is also extensive correspondence with local church historians in the Maritimes and Western Canada.
NOTE(S)
Source of supplied title
Title based on contents of the fonds.
Extent
The fonds is stored in 4 boxes.
Immediate source of acquisition
The historical material in the collection, along with a large number of books and periodicals that have been catalogued separately, were donated by the collector to the Victoria University Library in more than one installment during the 1940s and early 1950s.
Arrangement
The material in Box 1 was boxed and filed independently, possibly as a later addition to the collection. The rest of the historical collection follows a numbering system devised by Butchart, and was filed according to a scheme of numbered sections (I to XIX). The logic of these divisions is not self-evident.
Access restrictions
No restrictions on access
Finding aids
Box/file list available
Accruals
No further accruals are expected
Access points
Provenance access points:
Butchart, Reuben, 1863–
Subjects
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Canada
