[Goldfinch and thistle]
Watercolour by
Susanna Moodie, 1869.
Copyright/Source

Manuscripts and Journals

This section includes interesting and exemplary manuscript material drawn from the collections held by the National Library and the National Archives of Canada. Catharine Parr Traill's work is represented by pages drawn from her personal backwoods journal of 1837-38 and by a sketch of Susanna Moodie, which Traill composed a few years after her sister's death in 1885. The latter is part of a series of Strickland family reminiscences written by Traill late in her life, which remain in manuscript form in the Traill Family Collection. Also included is a four-part sequence showing the evolution of an early sketch; entitled "Memories of May" in Traill's original manuscript, this piece eventually became "Pleasant Days of My Childhood," published in Pearls and Pebbles.

Susanna Moodie's manuscripts are represented by a poem, "Britannia's Wreath" and by a story, "The Broken Mirror." This section also includes selected manuscript pages in John Moodie's hand from his "Spiritualism Album," put together during the 1850s and early 1860s in Belleville.