Fonds F0139 - Richard Simmins fonds.

Canadian photographer, writer, art critic and historian, and antiquarian book dealer Richard Beaufort Simmins was born on October 14, 1924 in Ottawa, Ontario. Served as a gunner in Royal Canadian Artillery in W.W. II. Received a B.A. and M.A. in art history from the University of Toronto. Worked as curator of The Norman MacKenzie Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan (1952-1957); Director of Exhibition Extension Services, National Gallery of Canada (1957-1962) where he organized the first exhibition of the Regina Five in 1961; Director of Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia (1963-1967); freelance art critic at Vancouver Province (1968-1972); director of The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia (1973-1975) where he commissioned Images of Stone : B.C. : Thirty Centuries of Northwest Coast Indian Sculpture in 1975; owner-operator of Richard Simmins Books and The Old Book Cellar in Ottawa, Ontario (1979-1992); and freelance photographer (1989-1999) specializing in photo-cards documenting his daily life. A prolific correspondent, he often wrote hundreds of letters a year. Died November 5, 1999 in Ottawa.