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| Fonds/Collection Number: | F0395 |
| Title: | Robert Owen Foundation fonds |
| Dates: | 1919-1976, predominant 1927-1948 |
| Extent: | 4.7 m of textual records 69 photographs |
| Biographical Sketch/ Administrative History: | The Robert Owen Foundation was begun in 1932 by Henri Lasserre, with the goal of promoting cooperative enterprises in Canada. Taken from the name of the eighteenth-century English social reformer, the Foundation was modeled on a similar body that Lasserre had established in his native Switzerland in 1928. The Foundation offered financial support to co-operative ventures in Canada and the United States, including the Llano Colony of California, the Columbia Conserve Company, Work Togs, the Fellowship for a Christian Order, the Co-operative Rural Community, and other groups and businesses. In addition, Lasserre established the Canadian Fellowship for Cooperative Community, a study group which investigated the manner of operating co-operatives in modern society. Lasserre died in 1945, but the Foundation remains active in the 1990s. |
| Scope and Content: |
The fonds documents the establishment, functioning and activities of the Robert Owen Foundation for the period 1931-1976 and Henri Lasserre's involvement with the foundation. It also partially documents the activities of the Canadian Fellowship Cooperative Community for the period of 1939-1947. The fonds documents the cooperative movement from the end of World War I to the early 1970s, and contains files on the free speech movement in the 1930s; the beginnings of the socialist movement in Canada; the pacifist movement in the 1930s; the social gospel movement and the creation of the state of Israel. Records have been organized into eleven series: Minutes, 1931-1974; legal documents, 1931-1940; annual reports, 1933-1952; financial records, 1931-1975; correspondence and subject files, 1925-1975; membership records, 1932-1945; manuscripts, typescripts and drafts; pamphlets and serials; Canadian Fellowship for Cooperative Community documents, 1933-1946; The Swiss Foundation documents, 1926-1942; scrapbooks; photographs, ca. 1925-1964; and ROF library catalogues. |
| Language of material note: | Materials are in English, French and German. |
| Restrictions on Access and Use: | No restrictions on access. |
| Finding Aid: | File list available. |
| URL of Finding Aid: | http://archivesfa.library.yorku.ca/fonds/ON00370-f0000395.pdf |
| Accruals: | The fonds comprises the following accession: 1989-027. Further accruals are expected. |
| 1989-027 |
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| Immediate source of acquisition: | Donated by the Robert Owen Foundation in 1989. |
| Provenance Access Points: | Robert Owen Foundation Lasserre, Henri (d. 1945) Canadian Fellowship Cooperative Community |
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Date of creation: 2002/04/05 Date of last revision: 2012/10/19 |
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