Title and statement of responsibility area
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Stefan Arnason fonds
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- Source of title proper: Title based on the provenance of the fonds.
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Fonds
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Physical description
25 cm of textual material.
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Stefan Arnason, son of Arni Jonatansson and Gudrun Jonsdottir, was born August 17, 1882 at Fagriskogur in Eyja Fjordur, Iceland. The eldest of 12 children, he was educated at the Gagnfraedaskoli at Mofurvollum in 1900. He immigrated to Canada in 1904 and spent time in Tantallon, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, Manitoba, before homesteading in Pine Valley (Piney), Manitoba in 1908. He married Gudrun “Sigurbjorg” Einarsdottir (born 1889, Hallson, North Dakota) in 1911, who had settled in the Pine Valley area with her parents.
The Arnasons took over Sigurbjorg’s father’s farm at Piney and had 12 children. Amongst the first settlers in the area, they were active in the community, helping build the first high school and hall. Stefan Arnason was on the school board, and worked for the municipality. The Arnason family were forced to move to the Vancouver area during the depression due to lack of employment opportunities. They moved thirteen family members (the eldest daughter stayed in the Piney area for 2 more years) in a one and a half ton Dodge truck to Burnaby, in April-May 1937.
Stefan Arnason passed away in 1956.
Sources:
Biographical information provided by Richard Arnason. Available for consultation in the accession file
Custodial history
Material was donated by the Arnason family, and was transferred to Rare Books and Special Collections by Richard Arnason.
Scope and content
Fonds consists of personal documents created and kept by Stefan Arnason, mostly in the form of diaries which document his family’s life from 1936 until his death in 1956. Some earlier diary entries, from 1906-1912, document Arnason’s life before his marriage, in Winnipeg and Piney. Diary entries pay particular attention to employment, family occasions and important events, and the weather. Fonds also contains some loose correspondence and notes, and several notebooks which appear to have been used during Arnason’s school days (including one “Nokkur sönglög,” containing Icelandic songs).
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
- English
- Icelandic
Script of material
Location of originals
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Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
File list available.
Generated finding aid
Associated materials
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
General note
Files completely or predominantly in Icelandic are noted in the file list.
Accompanying material
A transcription of the diaries is available in print and on CD ROM in boxes 2 to 4 (see file list). Transcription includes translation from Icelandic to English of early diary entries (1906-1912). Digital files from CD-ROM are available upon request.
Staff note: S:\RBSC