The IGA was established in 1912 to support the work of Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell, a medical missionary dedicated to the establishment and improvement of medical, educational, and economic facilities on the Great Northern Peninsula and the Labrador. The IGA maintained hospitals, nursing stations, medical steamers, boarding schools, and an orphanage. The association also encouraged community development through alternate employment, including arts and crafts, agriculture and the development of tourism.  For a detailed history of Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell and the IGA, visit: IGA Magic Lantern Slides

The IGA introduced the sale of Christmas cards in 1923 to raise monies for its many initiatives.  The oldest cards in the IGA fonds (1927-1980) at the The Rooms Provincial Archives are whimsical sketches by Dr. Grenfell himself:  God Rest You Merry Gentlemen (1927) and Christmas in the Children’s Ward at St. Anthony Hospital (1929).  The IGA card covers were frequently created by popular artists and printed by prestigious publishers, including Raphael Tuck & Sons, the most famous British greeting card company of its day.  Different cards, chosen by the national branches, were offered for sale in Great Britain, United States and Canada.

The IGA cards represent a variety of approaches to Christmas, ranging from Labrador nativity scenes to light-hearted depictions of bears, puffins, and wolves and realistic nature studies.  The cards also reproduced a diversity of media: pen & ink sketches, water colours, oil paintings, etchings, hooked wall hangings, stained glass, and photography.

Unlike many commercial cards, the IGA Christmas cards focused on local landscapes and peoples, celebrating the natural beauty and spirit of northern Newfoundland and Labrador.  There are several sensitive renderings of Aboriginal peoples, including Mollie Molesworth’s An Indian Camp, Labrador (1960) and Lorne Bouchard’s Char Fishing off Pangnirtang (sic) Reef at Low Tide (1981).  And note the bilingual caption on Rockwell Kent’s 1941 card.

The IGA fonds is currently closed to permit a complete arrangement and description of its textual, architectural and cartographic records, glass plate negatives and photographs, film reels and magic lantern slides. Watch for an announcement of its reopening in 2008.

The IGA cards represent only some of the Christmas cards, postcards and publications available at the The Rooms Provincial Archives.  We look forward to your visit.

In the meantime – to borrow a phrase from one IGA Christmas card –
“Kind Remembrance and Best Wishes”

From the Staff
The Rooms Provincial Archives
The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador