Fonds consists of negative photographs taken by John Macfie while he worked with the Department of Lands and Forests in Northern Ontario. The photographs depict various Cree, Iroquois, and Ojibway tribes and activities in the Patricia District, an area that extended directly north of Lake Superior on the western edge of James Bay and Hudson's Bay. It included Fort Severn, Fort Albany, Attawapiskat, Landsdowne House, Sioux Lookout, Weenusk, Moose Factory, Gogoma and Mattagami Reserve.
Macfie photographed with a Kodak camera, a Rolleicord, and a Zeiss Contax for 35 mm colour slides. His images depict native people and activities and include trapping, construction of tools and artifacts, images of dwellings and community buildings and domestic activities. Macfie's photographs also depict activities relating to agriculture, maple sugar farming, the logging industry, the commercial fishing industry, archeological digs along the French and Shebeshekong rivers, site investigations in McKellar, Ontario, as well as aerial surveys of polar bears and other wildlife near James Bay and Hudson Bay. Some photographs depict Ministry staff on expeditions. Life on the Macfie family farm, and the family's timber harvesting and sawmill operations are also documented.
John Macfie provided extensive identification for all of the photographs. This information includes the date and location of the photograph, names of subjects, and description of the activities. Additionally included are articles written by Macfie that provide detail about the subject matter of the photographs.
Fonds also consists of diaries, field notes and a glossary written by John Macfie during his trips to Northern Ontario as a trapline management officer for the Department of Lands and Forests.The field notes represent his official notes of his field trips and most are accompanied by a map of the area examined on that trip. These field notes were the source material for his report on his investigation to the Department. The diaries, on the other hand, present a personal account of his experiences during his field trips. The diaries complement the photographs by describing verbally some of the items depicted in the photographs.
Also included in the fonds is a copy of a technical circular attached to which is a note by Macfie stating how this circular shaped his thinking as a trapline management officer, as well as correspondence between the Royal Ontario Museum and the Department District Officer regarding some specimens collected by Macfie.
For a more detailed description, use this link to the Archives of Ontario's descriptive database:
http://ao.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PROV/PROV/REFD+C+330?SESSIONSEARCH