Laure Rièse
1996
923 photographs : b&w and col.
5 photograph albums : 1163 photographs : b&w and col.
85 postcards
74 video cassettes
20 drawings
1 audio cassette
Victoria University Library holds several collections relating to the life and work of Laure Rièse. In addition to the archival records in the Laure Rièse fonds, there are also monographs, letters from Irish novelist and dramatist Samuel Beckett, and a collection of inserts. See below for more information about these three collections and links to access them:
University of Toronto Catalogue: Contains all titles in the Rièse collection of monographs. These items can be browsed by doing an advanced search in the library catalogue and selecting Victoria (Pratt) Rièse Collection.
Inventory of Samuel Beckett Letters: An inventory for a collection of letters written by Samuel Beckett to Laure Rièse.
Laure Rièse Insert Collection: An inventory of inserts in various formats that were found between the pages of the books in the Laure Rièse monograph collection.
Laure Eva Rièse (1910–1996) was an academic. She was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, the daughter of Frédéric Rièse and Laure Veuilleumier. She died in Toronto, Ontario in 1996.
Rièse went to Secondary School in Switzerland. She studied arts and literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, France, before moving to Toronto in 1928 where she assumed a teaching position at Victoria College’s French House while studying at the University of Toronto. She acquired a B.A. in 1933, an M.A. in 1935 and a Ph.D. in 1946, the first woman faculty member to gain one. As a Professor of French at Victoria University, she conducted courses in the study of French-Canadian authors, and Quebec’s place in la francophonie. At the same time she supported the teaching of theatre and in her later years, became a mature model, posing for a variety of advertising campaigns, including one for The Bank of Montreal.
Rièse was a member of numerous organizations including Chairman of the Canadian Swiss Cultural Association, Honourary President of the Alliance Française, and founder and President of the French Salon in Toronto. She was also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in France (1971), the Officier d’Académie (1946), the Officier d’Instruction Publique, Officer of the Order of Canada, and Dame of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem. She also received an honorary Doctor of Sacred Letters degree from Victoria University in 1987.
Rièse’s publications include L’Ame de la Poésie Canadienne Française (anthology) and Les Salons Littéraires féminins du Second Empire à nos jours (1962). She wrote many articles and reviews for French Canadian and French American journals, and journals in France.
The fonds consists of Laure Rièse’s records pertaining to her activities as an academic and to her personal life. The fonds includes certificates; awards; contracts; correspondence with friends and with Canadian authors; manuscripts submitted by French and Canadian authors, poets and playwrights to Rièse for editing; records relating to Rièse’s activities as a member of the Advisory Board of the Northrop Frye Centre; correspondence and other material relating to Gérard Mourge; diaries; manuscripts; photographs; video cassettes for a Television Française Ontario (TFO) production entitled Mini-portrait pour le lancement de la fondation; notebooks, agenda books and engagement calendars; notes for speeches and conferences; research files; teaching files; travel journals and drawings and prints that she collected.
Title based on contents of the fonds.
The fonds also includes 6 photographs: 4x5 inch b&w negatives, 4 photographs: 35 mm col. negatives, 1 photograph: col. slide, 6 drawings, and 12 posters. It is stored in 38 boxes.
Acquired from Laure Rièse in 1994. File containing 1996 correspondence was acquired from the Rièse estate.
Some of the material is in English, some in French
Restrictions on access: No restrictions on access.
Detailed finding aid available: file level control.
No further accruals are expected.
Provenance access point: Rièse, Laure Eva, 1910–1996
Names as subject access points: Mourgue, Gérard; Northrop Frye Centre