Charles William Jefferys (August 25, 1869 – October 8, 1951) determined that Canada needed a visual history and a national mythology and he would create it. He chose to portray Canada’s epic events of discovery, courage, war and nation-building. His images placed an almost mythological importance on the nation’s historical events.
In the early 20th century Canadians struggled to define what it meant to be Canadian and how to express their budding feelings of nationalism. Jefferys’ work reflects this and; his historical illustrations are an expression of this growing nationalism. They are representative of the period, and may not be how we would define ourselves today.
Some of his illustrations were faithfully copied from existing images such as portraits or photographs, while others were based on meticulous historical research on period costumes. In either case, he strove to accurately portray all aspects of early Canadian life.
Jefferys, was born in Rochester, England, and arrived in Canada around 1880 via the United States. After attending school, he worked as a lithographer, illustrator, artist and teacher. He is best known as a historical illustrator.
He taught painting and drawing in the University of Toronto’s department of architecture from 1912 to 1939. During the First World War, he also painted soldiers at training camps in Petawawa and Niagara, on a commission from the Canadian War Records Office.
Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has approximately 3,000 of his drawings or watercolours. Many have been digitized and are available online. They represent the many stages of his artistic process and his finished works.
To view a selection of the images in the LAC collection, view the Jefferys Flickr album. To browse the entire Jefferys collection, start your search in the Charles William Jefferys fonds and select “Lower level description(s).” Most of his graphical material is located in the Imperial Oil Collection. If you are looking for a specific theme, such as “war,” go to Advanced Search and select “Part of MIKAN number” and then enter “100034” in the box next to it. In the second box, leave the default search – Any Keyword and enter your keyword–in this case, “war.”