Doris McCarthy Murals

Then

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Now

Scenes from fairy tales by Doris McCarthy, Earlscourt Branch, Toronto Public Library. Photograph in Reading in Toronto, 1932. TPL, Toronto Reference Library (027.4713 T59)

Scenes from fairy tales by Doris McCarthy, Dufferin/St. Clair Branch, Toronto Public Library. Photograph, 2008. © Toronto Public Library

See also G. A. Reid Murals and Earlscourt - Dufferin/St. Clair Library.

"Reid's former students painted other murals: Lorna Claire in the entrance hall in 1928 and Doris McCarthy in the children's club room in 1932. McCarthy illustrated "scenes in heroic rendering from "Little Red Riding Hood," "Jack the Giant Killer," and other such children's stories." She later recalled "The caretaker considered the weeks I put in on the job excessive since he had seen a man paint a whole billboard in a single day, but he was my only critic." Excerpt from St. Clair West in Pictures, 3rd ed., 110-11.

"Doris McCarthy's fairy tales scenes, painted in 1932 'in life-size scale and bigger for the giants,' were covered in 1964, but were restored as part of a library renovation completed in 2008. .[Her] murals now decorate KidsStop, an interactive early literacy centre." Excerpt from St. Clair West in Pictures, 3rd ed, 111 and verso of the title page.