The Ward M. Canaday Center

for Special Collections

The University of Toledo

Finding Aid

Frank H. Canaday Papers, 1911-1976

MSS-031

Size: 18 linear feet.

Provenance: After the death of Mr. Canaday, his papers went to his first wife Molly's niece, Alexis C. Hook.  By a deed of gift dated March 19, 1984, Keith B. and Alexis C. Hook of Glastonbury, Connecticut, transferred title to this collection to the University of Toledo Libraries

Access: open

Collection Summary: Although the collection pertains primarily to personal interests and activities, including travel, writing, music, and art, a few materials document Canaday's work at Willys-Overland Motors, Inc. and the U.S. Advertising Corporation. Some items document wartime production of the Willys-Overland Jeep and marketing of Willys-Knight products in Australia, the Far East, and Europe. Board of Directors meeting minutes, financial records, annual reports, and clippings document the purchase of Willys-Overland Motors by Henry J. Kaiser in 1953.

Subjects: Business and Commerce, Music, Art, Drama & Theater, Travel, and War, Soldiers & Veterans

Copyright: The literary rights to this collection are assumed to rest with the person(s) responsible for the production of the particular items within the collection, or with their heirs or assigns.  Researchers bear full legal responsibility for the acquisition to publish from any part of said collection per Title 17, United States Code.  The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections may reserve the right to intervene as intermediary at its own discretion.

Completed by:  Paul M. Gifford, November 1986; last updated: June, 2014

Introduction

 The papers of Frank H. Canaday, advertising and corporate exe­cutive and brother of Ward M. Canaday, Chairman of the Board of Willys-Overland Motors, Inc., contain correspondence, journals, scrap­books, photographs, a novel, and various records of his financial and business activities.  The content of the papers reflect Canaday's interests well.  He cared little for business, unfortunately  for most researchers, so only a small proportion of the papers pertain to his activity in that area.  Most of the material has to do with his personal interests; these include travel, writing, music, and art.  Nevertheless, those researching Willys-Overland and Ward M. Canaday will not be completely disappointed.  Letters from Ward can be found in abundance throughout the entire correspondence series, and many provide a good insight into his character.  Willys-Overland material is mainly from 1928-1929 and the postwar period.  It documents the companies efforts to expand overseas markets, postwar marketing, and its sale to Henry J. Kaiser in 1953.

 Researchers in other areas, including Harvard alumni, Toledo music and art in the 1940s, and world travel, will also find considerable items of interest.

No restrictions have been placed on the use of this collection.

 

 

Biographical Sketch

1893, Sept. 21

Born in New Castle, Indiana, third son of Miles M. and Sarah H.

1910 -

Graduated from New Castle High School.

1913 -

Traveled to Brazil.

1914 -

B. A. (English Literature), Harvard College.

1914-1916

Advertising Manager, American Journal of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.

1916-1917

General Advertising Assistant, Husband & Thomas (advertising agency), Chicago, Illinois.

1917-1919

Lieutenant, 333rd Field Artillery, mainly active as French translator; after armistice, with Rent, Reclamation and Claims Service of U. S. Army.

1919-1920

General Assistant, J. Roland Kay Company (international advertising agency), Chicago, Illinois.

1921 -

Assistant, Advertising Department. Guaranty Trust Company, New York, N. Y.

1922 -

Assistant, A. F. Thane and Company (import-export firm).

1922-1926

Advertising Manager, Wing Tai Vo Tobacco Corporation (subsidiary of British-American Tobacco Corporation), Shanghai, China.

1926-1930

Manager, Foreign Department, United States Advertising Corporation, Toledo, Ohio.

1928-1929

Traveled to Oceania, arranging advertising contracts for Willys-Knight.

1931-1936

Copywriter, United States Advertising Corporation.

1932, Dec.

Married Mary Russell (Molly) Morpeth of Wellington, New Zealand, in Toledo.

1936-1948

Account Executive, United States Advertising Corporation and its successors, Ewell & Thurber Associates and Canaday, Ewell Thurber, Inc., Toledo, Ohio.

1936-1953

Director, Willys-Overland Motors, Inc.

1939-1940

Consular Agent for Republic of France, Toledo, Ohio.

1946 -

Moved to New York, N. Y., in order to write novels and short stories; semi-retired

1950 -

Bought summer house in South Woodstock, Vermont.

1976 -

Wrote and had published, Triumph in Color: Molly Morpeth Canaday.

1976, June 13.

Died in Hanover, New Hampshire.

 

 

 

Scope and Content Note

As noted in the Introduction, the Frank H. Canaday Papers reflect those activities in which Canaday was most strongly interested.  By 1935, at the height of his business career, he felt unhappy with his career.  At the time of his retirement in 1946, he looked back on his years in advertising as having been destructive.  He felt his real interests and talents lay elsewhere ---- in writing short stories and novels, in current events, in art and music, and especially in travel.  Canaday, a bon vivant, fluent in French and knowledgeable in several other languages, possessed a ready wit and made friends easily.  His papers demonstrate both his lack of interest in business and his wide-ranging, yet persistent, personal interests.

Canaday's frustration with his career stemmed, no doubt, from his complicated relationship with his elder brother, Ward.  Frank consistently admired Ward, and Ward reciprocated; yet Frank carefully main­tained a separate identity.  The incoming correspondence is liberally sprinkled with letters from Ward.  In Frank's college years, Ward rather domineeringly suggested to him what courses to take and in what kind of activities to participate.  As the years progressed, business letters alternated with frequent, but short personal greetings.  In sum, the letters, documents, and photographs of Ward, his wife and family contribute a great deal toward our understanding of the Toledo industrialist.  Anyone researching the life of the Chairman of the Board of Willys-Overland Motors, Inc., then, will find material here of a defi­nitely productive value.

Less can be said for the research value of the material relating to the U. S. Advertising Corporation, Willys-Knight Motors, and Willys-Overland Motors.  The greatest historical interest in any of these companies is likely to revolve around the production of Jeeps during World War II. Unfortunately, the War years are represented only by a manuscript, "How Come the Jeep" by publicist A. Wade Wells (published later as Hail to the Jeep: A Factual and Pictorial History of the Jeep.  New York: Harper, 1946) and by a few public relations-related items in the scrapbooks.  On the other hand, certain other records are useful in researching other aspects of those companies.  The incoming and outgoing correspondence files for 1928 and 1929 and the reports of foreign conditions document the marketing and advertising of Willys-Knight products in Australia, the Far East, and Europe, as well as the automobile market in those areas generally.  Frank Canaday’s copies of the minutes of the Board of Directors, financial records, annual reports, and clippings in the scrapbooks are a fruitful source for the history of the purchase of Willys-Overland Motors, Inc., by Henry J. Kaiser in 1953.  For other years, however, material on the U.S. Advertising Corporation and on Willys-Overland tends to be sparse.

One long-standing interest covered by the entire range of the papers was in Harvard University.  As a student, Canaday wrote for the Crimson and saved his stories in a scrapbook.  A journal he kept in 1914 records events of the year in which he graduated.  He belonged to the Harvard Clubs of New York and Toledo and regularly attended class reunions.  The Hoosier-born Canaday loved the New England and Harvard mystique.  On advice of his brother, he cultivated the "old boy" network; among his correspondents over the years were classmates Christian A. Herter, Leverett Saltonstall, and Wilmington, Delaware financier, Alfred Dupont Chandler, Jr.  If not concerned with affairs of Harvard alumni, the content of Canaday’s correspondence with Herter and Saltonstall tends to contain Canaday’s comments on public affairs with acknowledgments by both of them.  Correspondence with Chandler is of a more personal nature.  Chandler's long letters mainly discuss his philosophy about finance and public affairs.  Canaday launched a quixotic campaign in 1963 and 1964 among Harvard alumni organizations to halt the merger of Harvard and Radcliffe.  The considerable correspondence generated by this effort demonstrates sentiment for and against this merger.  Harvard-related material continues on as late as 1969, when Canaday and Harvard's Houghton Library negotiated for a gift which never reached fruition.

This collection may be useful to researchers wishing to study concert music in Toledo.  Frank and Molly, Canaday were avid concert-goers and in the 1940s actively supported the Friends of Music, a Toledo organization which led ultimately to the creation of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra.  Many programs can be found in the scrapbooks for those years.

Molly was serious about her painting and in her last years, having developed a mature style, enjoyed a modest reputation.  Although this collection will probably yield little to researchers interested in studying art in Toledo, it does contain a long series of correspondence with the Viennese refugee painter, Joseph Floch and with the art historian, Hans Tietze.  Frank was devoted to his wife and to her interests.  In his final years, he organized material from his scrapbooks in order to write a book about Molly entitled, (Triumph in Color: The Life and Art of Molly Morpeth Canaday.  Canaan, N. H.:    Phoenix Publishing, 1976).

Frank's World War I experiences are well documented.  Frequent letters, to his sister-in-law, Miriam Coffin Canaday, describe his activities.  A journal (scrapbooks 4 and 5) provides a chronological record.  It is liberally illustrated with photographs and a variety of memorabilia.  Some correspondence during this period was carried on in French.

Travel, as noted before, was a passion shared by both Frank and Molly.  A journal describes his visit to Brazil in 1913.  The 1922-1926 sojourn in China is not well documented in this collection since his files and scrapbooks for those years have been donated to the Harvard-Yenching Library at Harvard University.  The 1928-1929 world trip was strictly for business, but photographs do document some of his tours to places like Angkor Wat and his shipboard socializing.  On this trip he met a British military officer, James Walker, with whom he maintained a friendship for many years.  A number of letters and other material from Walker describe the development of the Benguela Railway in Angola and the Katanga controversy of the early 1960s.  Other trips, to New Zea­land and to Europe, were made in the 1950s and 1960s.  Journals for those trips, illustrated by photographs and memorabilia, can be found in the scrapbooks.  Entries typically record where Frank and Molly stayed, where they ate, what they visited, and whom they saw.

The scrapbooks generally contain a variety of materials; many, however, of dubious historical value.  Letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, calling cards, and other items comprise the content of the typical scrapbook.  Frank Canaday was an "idea man" and was eager to share his views with journalists, writers, politicians, and marketing agents.  If something struck his momentary fancy, he did not hesitate to offer his ideas to any of those people.  His political awareness was heightened mainly during presidential election years, although he frequently expressed his opinion to his representatives in Congress.  Much of his correspondence, both in the correspondence files and in the scrapbooks, belongs to this category.  Likewise, Canaday frequently saved newspaper clippings and articles from popular magazines on a wide variety of subjects, mainly of a general-interest nature.

The researcher should be alerted, nevertheless, to items of greater interest in the scrapbooks.  Willys-Overland annual reports, Toledo photographs, and certain significant letters can be found in certain scrapbooks.

Since for much of Canaday's life, his business and family life were closely intertwined, his correspondence files contain both business, family, and personal letters.  Significant correspondents include Ward M. Canaday, Miriam Coffin Canaday, Wilbur ("Jack") Canaday, Miron Canaday, Mrs. Sarah H. Canaday, Doreen Canaday Spitzer; his wife's New Zealand relatives, Charlton D. Morpeth, Nona Greig, Pat Entrican, and others; and friends James Dulin, Alfred D. Chandler, Frederick and Emma Endres Kountz, Robert Ayers, James Walker, Joseph Floch, Henri Jegu, and Robert Lexow Grant.

 

Folder List

Box

Folder

Arrangement

 

1

18
1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

 

 

 

3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4

 

4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.

 

 

6

 

 

7

 

 

8

 

 

9

 

 

10

 

 

11

 

 

12

 

12

 

OS

OS

13

 

 

14

 

 

15

 

 

16

 

 

17

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

18

 

1
2
18
3

 

4
5

6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

16
17

18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35

36
1
2
3
4
5
6

7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34

35
36
37

38

39
40
41

42

43
44
1

2
3

4
5

6
7
8
9

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

18
19
20
21
22

23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

18
19
20
21
22
23

 

24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31

32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43

44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

2
3
4

5
6
7
8
9

10
11
12
13

14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27

28
29
30

31

 

1

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

 
Journals
            1913  (Brazil)  trip                                          
            1914
            1926, Jan. 1-Mar. 3
            1929-1930
Correspondence
    Outgoing
          General, 1914-1927
           To Ward M. Canaday, 1912-1918
           To Miriam Coffin Canaday
                          1912-1913
                          1914-1916
                          1917
                          1918-1919
           To Charles A. Baldwin, 1916-1920, 1928 
                           General
                           John N. Willys Export Corporation
                           U. S. Advertising Corporation 1929
                                          General
                                    U. S. Advertising Corporation
            To Molly Morpeth Canaday
                 1929-1930
                 1931
                 1932
                      Jan. -May
                      June-Sept.
                      Oct. -Dec.
                 1934
                 1935
                 1936
            1933-1934
            1935
            1937-1939
            1940-1942
            1943-1944
                 General
                  Re:  Jeep Book
            1945-1946
            1947
            1948
            1949
            1950
            1951
            1952
                 Jan.-June
                 July-Dec.
            1953
            1954
            1955
            1956
            1957
            1958
                 Jan. -June
                 July-Dec.
            1959
            1960
            1961
            1961-1962, re:   Benguela Railway
            1962
            1963
            1963-1964, Harvard-Radcliffe Merger
            1965
            1966
            1967
            1968
            1969
            1970-1976
     Incoming
            1911
            1912
            1913
            1914
            1915
            1916
            1917
            1918
            1919
            1920
            1921
            1922
            1923-1927
            1928
                General
               John N. Willys Export Corporation
                U. S. Advertising Corporation
            1929
     General
                  U.S. Advertising Corporation
                         Jan.-May
                         June-Dec.
            1930-1931
            1932
            General
                Molly Morpeth
                           Mar.-Oct.
                          Nov.-Dec.
            1933
            1934
               General
               Molly Morpeth Canaday
            1935
               General
               Molly Morpeth Canaday
            1936
                General
                Molly Morpeth Canaday
           1937-1939
1940-1942
            1943-1944
    General
    Re:    Jeep Book  by Wells
            1945-1946
1947
            1948
            1949
            1950
            1951
            1952
                January-June
                July-December
             1953
             1954
             1955
             1956
                  January-June
                  July-December
             1957
             1958
             1959
             1960
             1961
             1961-1963, Re:  Benguela Railway
             1962
             1962-1964, Re:  Harvard-Radcliffe Merger
             1963-1969, Re:  Genealogy
             1963
             1964
             1965
             1966
             1967
             1968
             1969
             1970
             1971
             1972
             1973
             1974
             1975
             1976
             Undated
Reports,    1928-1929
               Willys Australia  Advertising  Agreement
               Paris Auto Show
               Conditions in Countries Visited
               Olympia Motor Show
              European  Advertising Ventures
               Miscellaneous Notes
Willys-Overland Motors, Inc.
               Board of Directors
                         Minutes, 1951-1953
                         Agenda, 1952-1953
               Finance Committee - Minutes, 1952-1953
               Memoranda, 1947-1953
               Press Releases, 1947-1953
               Financial Reports, 1946-1953
               Annual and Semiannual Reports, 1946-1953
               Miscellaneous
Overland Corporation
               Board of Directors - Agenda and Minutes, 1954-1958
               Finance Committee
               Financial Reports
               Annual  Reports
               Overland Properties, Inc.
               Overland Services, Inc.
               Canaday, Ewell and Thurber, Inc.
               Dominion Industries Company
               Empire Securities, Inc.
               Ward M. Canaday, Inc.
               J. Roland Kay Company, 1919
               Canaday Family - Financial Matters
               Real Estate
                           Mill at Ully St. Georges, France
                            Sherburne, Vermont
               Resumes
               Certificates
               Letters of  Introduction
               Material  From Military Service
               China  Sojourn - Miscellaneous
               Daily Schedules - Various  Times
               Woodstock Country School

Scrapbooks  (number, inclusive years, and content, if
      other than general)
          1. 1913-1919 - Harvard Crimson Articles
          2. 1915-1916
          3. 1916-1919
          4. 1917-1918 - War Material,  Journal
         
          5. 1918-1919 - Journal
          6. 1919 - Journal
          8. 1920-1925 - Short  Stories Written in China, Letters
         
          9. 1910-1927
         
          20. 1926-1928
          21. 1928 - Pacific Islands, New Zealand
          22. 1928-1929 - Australia, East Indies,Singapore
          
          23. 1928-1929 - Germany
         
          24. 1929 - Far East
          25. 1929 - Spain, France
          26. 1929 - Christmas Cards
          27. 1929 - Japan, Philippines, China
         
          28. 1930
          29. 1930-1931
          30. 1932
          31. 1933-1935
         
          32. 1935-1936
          33. 1936
          34. 1936-1937
          35. 1936, 1938-1939
         
          36. 1938-1943
          37. 1940-1946- Journal
          38. 1939-1944
          39. 1940-1942
         
          40. 1940-1945 - Musical Programs
          41. 1944-1945
          42. 1945
          43. 1944-1945
          44. 1944-1945
        
          45. 1946-1949
        
          46. 1950-1960
        
          47. 1954 - Journal of European Tour, Vol. 3: Apr. 17-May 4
          48. 1954 - Journal of European Tour, Vol.  1: Feb. 4-June 15
          49. 1954 - Journal of European  Tour, Vol. 2: Apr. 1-Apr. 16
          50. 1954 - Journal of European  Tour
        
          51. 1959
          52. 1961
          53. 1963
          54. 1963-1964
          55. 1965
        
          56. 1966
          57. 1967 -  Trip to Mexico, Tahiti
          58. 1968 - World Tour
          59. 1968 - World Tour
        
          60. 1968  - World Tour
          61. 1967-1970
          62. 1969-1971 - Molly Canaday's Illness and Death
          63. 1971-1972 - Molly Canaday's Exhibit of Art  Works

Short Story and Skit
Planchette (novel)
       pp. 1-70
       pp.   71-139
       pp. 140-213
How  Come the Jeep, by A. Wade Wells
       Chapters    1-10
       Chapters   11-16
       Chapters   17-21
       Dummy
       Miscellaneous
Photographs
       Canaday Family - Early Members
       Lewis and Sarah Schmidt and Family
       Mr. & Mrs. Miles M. Canaday and Family
       Canaday Brothers
       Frank H.  Canaday
                  1893-1920
                  1920-1976
       Molly Morpeth Canaday
       Ward M. Canaday
       Doreen Canaday Spitzer
       Miron Canaday and  Family
       Wilbur Canaday and Family
       Frank Canaday's Travels and  Homes
       Ully-St. Georges (Frank's Property)
       Willys-Overland Motors, Inc.
       Snapshots  From  Others
       Portraits of  Others
       Negatives
       Newspaper Clippings
       Published  Material
                     General
                     Benguela Railway
"The Education of Alfred Chandler or Innocents Abroad" by Alfred D.  Chandler
 Miscellaneous

Molly Morpeth Canaday
         Correspondence
                   Outgoing - general
                   Incoming
                       1932
                       1933
                       1934
                       1935
                       1936
                       1937-1938
                       1942-1950
                       1952-1954
                       1955-1956
                     1957-1959
                     1960-1961
                     1962-1963
                     1964-1970 and Undated
                     Medical  Records
                    Citizenship and Wedding
                    Art

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: 6/27/22