(13 April 1914-17 Nov. 1983), art historian. (J. Russell Harper, Russell Harper) Born on a farm near Caledonia, Ont. Parents: Alexander Turnbull Harper and his wife Evelyn Taylor. He attended the Hamilton Normal College and the Ontario College of Art, saw war service as a radar mechanic with the RCAF in England and Canada 1941-1945, and studied at the University of Toronto after the war (B.A., 1947, M.A., 1950). He worked for the University of Toronto, the Royal Ontario Museum and the New Brunswick Museum, and prepared a government archaeological report for the restoration of Fort Louisbourg. In the field of curatorship, he served at various times as curator of the Lord Beaverbrook Collection in Fredericton, N.B., curator of Canadian Art for the National Gallery of Canada, and chief curator of the McCord Museum, at McGill University. He was advisor to Kenneth Thomson, of Thomson Newspapers, on his Krieghoff collection, and was associated with the Journal of Canadian Art History. In Montreal, 1967-1979, he taught first at Sir George Williams University and then at its successor Concordia University.

     Russell Harper was the author of distinguished and well-known books on Canadian art. His Painting in Canada: a History (1966, revised 1977) was a landmark work in the study of Canadian culture. He also wrote Early Painters and Engravers in Canada (1970), Paul Kane’s Frontier (1971), a study of folk art called A People’s Art (1974), and Krieghoff (1979), and was co-editor of a collection of William Notman photographs, Portrait of a Period (1967). Through his writings, his encouragement and his example, he helped to lay the foundations for the scholarly study of Canadian art history in the Canadian universities.

     Russell Harper received many honours including appointment to the Order of Canada in 1975. For his last 17 years he lived in GC. He restored a log farmhouse on the Marcoux Road, near Alexandria, as his home. Afterwards he lived at South Lancaster. He was one of the first prominent members of that remarkable community of scholars, intellectuals, writers and artists who established themselves in GC in the last few decades. Interested in GC history, he was active in the affairs of the Glengarry Historical Society. He served as its vice-president, published an article on the artist Archibald Browne in Glengarry Life, the journal of the Glengarry Historical Society, 1977, and helped edit the 1980 volume of Glengarry Life. He reviewed the MacGillivray and Ross history of Glengarry (1979), in the Ottawa Citizen (27 Oct. 1979). Russell Harper died in Cornwall General Hospital. He was married to Elizabeth Goodchild (who died 21 Sept. 1991). (1 child) Father of Jennifer Harper. The article on Russell Harper in The Canadian Encyclopedia is by Frances G. Halpenny, a former Glengarrian. A bluff-spoken, burly, slightly bearded man, firmly confident of his own good judgement, Russell Harper resembled the familiar stereotype of the sea captain.

Globe and Mail : tributory notice 18 Nov. 1983, and article of appreciation and evaluation (portrait) by art critic John Bentley Mays, “He Made Canadians Proud of Their Art,” 19 Nov. 1983 * Glengarry News 23 Nov. 1983 (portrait) * biog. notice, obituary tribute, GHS Annual Volume 1975/1976 and Glengarry Life 1984 * date of degrees: University of Toronto Archives * Bibliography of Glengarry: index * obituary of Mrs Russell Harper (who by a remarriage had become Mrs Frank Ogilvie), GN 25 Sept. 1991 * GN 1 Dec. 1966, J. Russell Harper, GC summer resident in Loch Garry area, has published Painting in Canada * GN 3 July 1975 & 30 Oct. 1975 (& Gr. Gen. Léger–a striking photograph), appointed to Order of Canada (so also Dr Wilfred Johnston) * review (of A People’s Art), interview, by Kate Kritzwiser, Globe & Mail 20 Nov. 1974 * GN 8 June 1977, in letter to editor, Harper seeks information about Archibald Browne