Bringing It All Together:
The Christian Bennedsen Collection
Chris Bennedsen was a careful recorder of his life and a diligent collector of the myriad ephemera that he accumulated through the course of his days, weeks, and years. He wrote and received hundreds of letters, and he kept them all. Job-site notes were meticulously filed away, and many other documents and photographs were saved with care.
Because of Chris’s diligence and care, the Canadian Postal Museum now has a collection of unique materials that is a rich resource for researchers of immigration to Canada and the remaking of Canadian society in the post-war era. The Bennedsen collection is a truly incredible reflection of a life consciously lived to the fullest, for which we, in Canada—and this includes the writer—are all the richer. There may well be other Keddes out there from every corner of the globe. Our task in the future will be to find them and tell their stories too.
Chris Bennedsen at home, ca 2001. (Private Collection)