McGill Library
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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Letter from John McCrae to Carleton Noyes, with poem, In Flanders Fields
General material designation
Parallel title
In Flanders Fields
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA OSLER P073-1
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
2 sheets ; 21.3 x 18.7 cm, in frame 37 x 29 cm, in wooden box 40 x 28.8 cm.
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
(1872-1918)
Biographical history
Born in Guelph, Ontario, McCrae was a career soldier and practicing physician. He graduated in 1898 in medicine from the University of Toronto. Before the war, he worked at the Montreal General and the Royal Victoria Hospital, and taught at McGill University. Although McCrae was a trained physician, he joined an army fighting unit at the outbreak of the First World War. There, he experienced some of the first chemical weapons attacks during the second battle of Ypres in Belgium. In 1915, McCrae was ordered away from the artillery to set up the No. 3 Canadian General Hospital (McGill University) at Dannes-Camiers near Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France. He died there of pneumonia on 28 January 1918.
Custodial history
Owned by Mrs. Carleton Noyes, class of 1904, R.V.H. Gift of May Metcalfe.
Scope and content
The item consists of a letter sent from John McCrae while on active duty to Carleton Noyes, Cambridge, MA, with an envelope postmarked 31 May 1916. Enclosed with the letter is an autographed signed copy of McCrae's poem, In Flanders Fields. The poem's first line in this copy ends with the word “grow,” a change from the published version in which the line finishes with “blow.” In his letter, McCrae modestly notes that the poem had achieved some level of notoriety.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Left to the Osler Library among the literary archives of fellow physician and McGillian John Andrew Macphail.
Arrangement
Poem and letter are mounted in plastic frame fixed within wooden box. Only the last page of the letter is visible.
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Items can be requested for consultation online via the Library Catalogue or by email at osler.library@mcgill.ca. Advance notice is recommended.
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
With envelope.