BIOGRAPHY / HISTORY
Prentice Gilbert Downes, born in 1909, was a school teacher from Concord, Massachusetts. He often travelled to the north during the summer and one such visit is chronicled in his book "Sleeping Island: the Story of One Man's Travels in the Great Barren Lands of the Canandian North" (1943). He died in approximately 1978.
CUSTODIAL HISTORY
The fonds was created by P.G. Downes, and remained in the custody of his wife E.G. Downes. She donated it to the Trent University Archives.
SCOPE AND CONTENT
This fonds consists of three notebooks of typewritten notes entitled "Reference Notes on the Cree", and one photograph of P.G. Downes with Richard Finnie. The notebooks contain bibliographic sources, alphabetically arranged, their contents briefly analyzed and evaluated in terms of their usefulness to the study of various facets of Cree society. The notebooks also contain a number of Prentice G. Downes' writings.
NOTES
Title based on the creator of the fonds.
The notebooks were donated by Mrs. E.G. Downes in 1979 and the photograph was donated by Mrs. George Douglas February 8, 1980.
Restrictions: N
Finding aids: Y
Associated material located at the National Archives of Canada MG 24 (J17) - Robert Hunt diaries.
Notebooks:
A Closer Look at James Isham's "Observations"
Cree Conversations and Comments: Sexual Content
The "Fish River" Adventure of Reverend Robert Hunt, 1852; with introduction and notes by P.G. Downes, 1954
Magico-Religious Terms of the Cree
Index of Robert Hunt's Diaries and a Description of them. (The original Robert Hunt Diaries are housed in the Public Archives of Canada MD 24(J17)).