How research becomes form - and what a 1930 thesis reveals about how we work with books today 

A Master’s thesis: C.S. Buck, Pioneer Art and Architecture — the origins and character of early architecture and practical arts of Ontario to 1850. 

Three volumes and three supplements,1930, held at Western Libraries.

What appears at first glance to be “just a thesis” unfolds into something far more complex.

The work consists of three large volumes — nearly 1,000 leaves — mostly handwritten, with sections typed, interwoven with hundreds of original pencil drawings and photographs printed from negatives and mounted by hand. Architectural details, roof structures, porches, domestic objects, stonework, metalwork, furniture — each element is observed, recorded, and placed within a larger visual and historical narrative. Plus three supplements — additional oversized albums extend the work further with plans, drawings, and photographic material.

What becomes visible through these pages is not only documentation, but a method.

The author travelled across Ontario, drawing on site, photographing, annotating, assembling — building a visual archive through direct encounter. This project does not read as a student submission, but as a work shaped by long-term dedication — the result of sustained, attentive looking that is increasingly rare — a form of research carried out through direct observation, drawing, and material engagement over time that passes through the hand before becoming knowledge. Documentation, interpretation, and making are inseparable.