Norman McLaren Archive
Collection Reference: GB 0559 GAA / 31
Biographical History:
Norman McLaren was born in Stirling in April 1914. The son of a painter and decorator he was educated at Stirling High School. He studied art and interior design at the Glasgow School of Art from 1933-36. While there he began making short experimental films. His work came to the attention of John Grierson who offered him a job with the GPO film unit in London. In 1939 McLaren left Britain and moved to New York. In 1941 he took up an invitation from John Grierson to work at the National Film Board of Canada, which Grierson had established in 1939. In Canada Grierson gave McLaren the freedom to experiment. He examined the various ways sound and movement could be presented on film and developed a variety of different techniques of animation. McLaren’s genius was recognised worldwide with a string of awards for his work including an Oscar in 1953 for his short film Neighbours.
Contents:
Technical notes and promotional material relating to McLaren’s films; correspondence with his family in Scotland (1936-66) and the filmmaker Helen Biggar (1936-39); awards, medals, honorary degrees and related material; press cuttings relating to McLaren and his work (1934-93); personal memorabilia; photographs; artwork including paintings and pastels.
The Norman McLaren Archive has been created through the generous donation of material from members of McLaren’s family in Scotland and friends and colleagues in Canada. Following an initial transfer of material to the university by McLaren’s brother John in the 1990s the collection has grown substantially in recent years.
Catalogue information:
Full details of the Norman McLaren Archive are included on the online archives catalogue.
Digitised content:
A selection of documents relating to Norman McLaren’s time in China in 1949-1950 working on a UNESCO educational project are available on our JSTOR Open Community Collections pages.
Related Collections:
- John Grierson Archive, University of Stirling Archives
- Don McWilliams Archive, University of Stirling Archives
- The National Library of Scotland holds a collection of letters written by McLaren to his friend Florence Russell (Acc. 5649 & Acc. 9312)
Publications: The following books about Norman McLaren are held with the archive:
- Dobson, N., Norman McLaren – Between the Frames (London, 2018)
- McLaren, N. & Blackburn, M., Six Audio-Visual Musical Forms (illustrations by Norman McLaren) (Montreal, 1967)
- McLaren, N. & Colombo, J., An Alphabet of Quotations (Montreal, 1972)
- McLaren, N., The Drawings of Norman McLaren (Montreal, 1975)
- National Film Board of Canada, McLaren (an illustrated celebration) (NFB Canada, 1980)
- Richard, V., Norman McLaren Manipulator of Movement – The National Film Board Years 1947-1967 (Ontario, 1982)
