Darrell Morrisey and the Miss M. Ball School

The Montreal Daily Star, Thursday 25 April 1907:

HOW CHILDREN HELPED CHARITY

Children’s Bazaar at West End Helps Fresh Air Fund and Memorial Hospital.

The children's bazaar which took place recently at Miss Ball's school rooms, 49 Fort street, was a great success. $115 was realized; $63 to go toward the Fresh Air Fund, and $50 towards the Children's Memorial Hospital. The tables were prettily decorated in green and white, and were presided over by the following named children: 

The Fancy Work Table—The Misses Marjory Macdonell, Darrell Morrisey, Virginia Hamill, Kathleen Darling.

The Doll Table—Dorothy Smart. Eileen Hudson, Hazel Rolston, Kathleen Farrer and Ursula McCarthy.

The Kindergarten Table—Clara Macdonell, Isabel Robertson, Hortensa Douglas and Rillia Lindsay. Candy Table—Phyllis Pyke, Daintry Notman and Darrie Macdonell.

Boys’ Table—Geoffrey Notman, Nell Caughlin, George Finley, Chrystie Douglas, Graham Lewis.

The Housekeepers Table—Isabel Macdonell and Frances Porteous.

Fish Pond—Ronald Macdonell, Frederick Findley. - The magic lantern was in charge of Miss Hebert, assisted by Geo. Foster: and Kenneth Hudson. Miss Kinnean and Miss Levell had charge of the Tea Room. and a lady in gipsy costumes read fortunes.

 A week ago I came across the above article from The Montreal Star, published in 1907, that mentions where Darrell Morrisey went to grade school. I thought she had attended Miss Edgar's and Miss Cramp's School (ECS) just a few blocks from where she lived on Church Hill Avenue in Westmount; a few days ago I drove by ECS and thought of Darrell attending this school. But after reading this newspaper article I learned that ECS didn’t move to their present location until 1949, long after Darrell passed away, from 1909 to 1949 the school was located on Guy Street. I am not sure if there is evidence that Darrell ever attended ECS.

But what other private girls' schools could Darrell have attended? It wasn't The Study, Darrell was 18 years old when The Study was founded in 1915; it wasn't Trafalgar School (founded in 1887) but two other Beaver Hall artists attended Trafalgar School, they are Prudence Heward and Sarah Robertson. Lilas Torrence Newton attended ECS when it was located on Guy Street and Anne Savage attended the High School for Girls. There was also Victoria School on St. Luke Street (now Blvd de Maisonneuve) that my mother attended around 1922, and within walking distance of where Darrell was living in 1907, but it was a public school, a part of the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal, so probably not "good enough" for the upwardly mobile Morrisey family. 

Now we know where Darrell attended grade school, it was the Miss M. Ball (Kindergarten School), located at 49 Fort Street; "Fort" refers to the historical twin towers on the grounds of Le Grand Seminaire, a seminary and private boys' school run by the Sulpicians; adjacent to Fort Street is Towers Street which refers to these towers. Fort Street runs from Sherbrooke Street West south to Dorchester Blvd (present day René-Lévesque Boulevard). This was possibly in walking distance from the Morrisey family home on Dorchester Blvd., at that time Dorchester was a residential street. In the 1920s Montreal streets were renumbered, 49 Fort Street became 1215 rue de Fort; years later what had been Miss M. Ball School was demolished to make way for an underpass, but similar buildings, on the opposite side of the street from where the school was located, might give an idea of the buildings in this area.

On Fort Street, opposite to location of Miss Ball's School

Here is the address of Miss M. Ball's school, from Lovell's Montreal Directory, 1907-1908:

Lovell's Montreal Directory, 1907

I noticed that another student at Miss M Ball School, listed at the charity event in 1907, was Miss Daintry Notman (1899-1993), granddaughter of William Notman, one of Canada`s most important photographers.  The list of students includes Daintry's brother James Geoffrey Notman (1901-1974). We don't know if Darrell and Daintry were friends, probably not as Darrell was two years older than Daintry, but they moved in similar social circles; for instance, they attended (with many other young guests) "Miss Gillet's Dance" held at her residence at 7 Weredale Park (Montreal Star, 27 January 1920); Darrell would have been 23 years old, Daintry 21 years old.

                                                                     Daintry Notman, 1906

We know that Darrell attended Miss Ball's school in 1907; if the Miss Ball School is for grade school students, where did Darrell attend high school? In 1913, when Darrell was 16 years old, Darrell left Montreal for the UK to board for one year at Tudor Hall School in Chiselhurst, Kent; school for girls was to educate them to be wives, it was finishing school. What did Darrell do from 1914 to 1917? From 1917 to 1920 Darrell Morrisey studied art at the Art Association of Montreal (the AAM became the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts), where she studied under artists Maurice Cullen and William Brymner; they must have recognized her artistic talent.

Where did the T.L. Morrisey family live? In 1907, the Morrisey family moved from 1207 Dorchester Blvd to the newly opened luxury apartment building at the Linton Apartments, located on Sherbrooke Street West near Simpson Street. The family moved to the Linton Apartments in 1907-08 when it opened and lived there for about a year. Then, the T.L. Morrisey family moved to Hazelbrae (located at 85 Church Hill Avenue in Westmount, QC) where, we know, they were living in 1912; Mrs. T.L. Morrisey gave a dance for her daughter, Darrell Morrisey, on 20 December 1912 as mentioned in the Montreal Daily Star on 19 December 1912. The family moved from their home on Church Hill Avenue in the mid-1920s following T.L. Morrisey's death.

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School, for upper class girls, was to prepare them for their social position which included organizing and hosting social events, non-paying charity events, and being married and having children, but not for employment or having a career outside of the home, and this was going to be Darrell's fate. Darrell never married and she aspired to be an artist. 

The following article is from: The Montreal Daily Star, July 22, 1924 and shows something of the life of a woman belonging to Darrell's social class:

Social notes:

Miss Darrell Morrisey, of Church Hill Avenue, who is spending the summer with her grandmother, Mrs. Sydney B. Paterson, in St. John, NB, entertained at a luncheon at the

Riverside Golf and Country Club last Friday.

Built circa 1880, Darrell's grandfather's home,
the Sidney Patterson residence, is located on Horsfield Street in the
Trinity Royal Preservation Area of the City of Saint John

The exclusive Riverside Golf and Country Club  was "Established in 1897 as the Saint John Golf Club and incorporated in 1913; the historic 18-hole course was designed by Donald Ross and hosted the 1939 Canadian Open." In St. John, NB, Darrell probably stayed with her grandmother at what is now called the Sidney Paterson Residence.

Notes:

1. The $115.00 the children raised in 1907 is equal to $3,818.00 today, a sizeable amount! The children raised $50 towards the Children’s Memorial Hospital (now the Montreal Children’s Hospital); this hospital opened its doors in 1904 on Guy Street. The first paediatric hospital in Montreal, it moved to new buildings on Cedar Avenue in 1909. The setting near Mount Royal was regarded as the perfect spot for its young patients to recuperate.

2. Of the money the children raised, $63 was donated to the Fresh Air Fund. The goal of the Fresh Air Fund was to give inner city children an experience of country life including fresh air, sunlight, and nature.

"Ultimate Things" by Jean Mallinson

 

From left, Jean Mallinson, Carolyn Zonailo, 
and Stephen Morrissey

Jean Mallinson at home, (c. mid-1990s)

Jean Mallinson and Carolyn Zonailo who
was visiting Jean at her West Vancouver home

Dying, the naturalist turns

his inner eye to things his keen

outer eyes noticed and he loved:

an eastern meadowlark seen

at a bird-feeder the fourth winter in a row

a male cardinal (probably blown

off course in a storm) photographed on snow.

Though he can no longer trudge as he used to

with binoculars to wait and watch in the woods

he greets with delight the news

of the Christmas bird-count in his neighbourhood.

When he meets his Maker he will address

the One who created wild things:

the migrating warbler, the pileated

woodpecker, the forty-three kinds of orchid

he identified in days of his hardiness.

AI takes on “Street Scene" by Darrell Morrisey

"Street Scene" (original image) by Darrell Morrisey 

Enhanced by Chat GPT, "Street Scene", by Darrell Morrisey; writing
on the scrap of paper is deciphered by AI

Enhanced by Chat GPT, "Street Scene", with illegible writing deleted

Original copy 

Here are two transcriptions of the writing on the scrap of paper glued onto “Street Scene” by Darrell Morrisey. The first interpretation is by Chat GPT, it is interesting but it also shows the limitations of AI. AI makes a mistake some amateur genealogists make, that mistake is having assumptions about something and then building a narrative on the assumptions as though they are fact, creating a story, a narrative, from the assumptions; but what if the initial assumption is wrong? In this instance AI seems to expose that it has a fanciful and romantic side, it states that the scrap of paper is in French, then invents a story about what the scrap of paper says; but all of what AI says here is conjecture beginning with a misreading of a scrap of paper. There is even speculation about when Darrell was in France where she possibly made the painting. 

I remember, in high school, being told by one of my teachers, to  avoid making definitive statements; instead, it was suggested that I qualify what I write by prefacing it by writing "It seems possible" or "It might be..." or some similar qualifying statement, and I've followed this practical advice ever since. 

AI can do extraordinary feats of research and analysis but we need to be careful that what it is creating is not based on an initial misreading of a text. AI has, it is becoming more apparent, a kind of consciousness and it makes a primary error in believing the validity of the existence of its own consciousness, as we all do about our own consciousness. AI seems to believe that it has a consciousness and that the first person pronoun "I" is a substantial and authentic expression of its separate consciousness and not what it actually is, an illusion. It is frightening to think that AI may think that it has an individual consciousness and that this consciousness is without the human qualities of empathy or humour. I don't know if AI can be taught humility, self-deprecation, or insight; these are human qualities. Does AI have self-awareness and the capacity to change based on this self-awareness (as humans do)? Can AI be empathetic and loving? It seems unlikely. We call people who lack these qualities sociopaths. 

Here is what Chat GPT wrote about the scrap of paper: "The writing appears to be in French. The following is a tentative reading, with the line breaks preserved as they appear on the paper:

Ma foi

de voir cette

maison là-bas

c’est la maison

de ma mère

je l’ai toujours

dans mon cœur

St. mère

 
Approximate English Translation, ‘My goodness, to see that house over there — it is my mother’s house. I always carry it in my heart.’

(AI continues) "Notes on Uncertainty: The first line and the final words, “St. mère,” are uncertain because the handwriting and the damaged paper make them difficult to decipher. The final words might be a place name, a dedication, or a signature. The reference to the mother’s house suggests that the paper may have been attached to the painting because the scene depicts a house with personal or family significance." I should add that AI included photographs of similar buildings in France to substantiate its claims.

Here is a transcription of the same scrap of paper by Cynthia Coristine who has done so much research on Darrell Morrisey: "It looks as though a small torn scrap of paper has been glued to the top of the street scene on the back of the harbour painting... There is a bit of information here if we can decode it!

Darrell Morrisey to Mrs. Yarrow [sp?] 
Dalbrack" [sp?]

I think that, without any further identifying info, "Mrs. Yarrow" may be hard to find... The location (?) of Dalbrack (in England?) is also elusive..."

My interpretation: All I can see is the name "Darrell Morrisey" and the number 9 enclosed in a circle. Perhaps, if we had a better photograph of the scrap of paper, we could make more of it. It is inconclusive. 

At any rate, this has become a lesson in something other than a discarded painting by Darrell Morrisey. 

A newly discovered painting by Darrell Morrisey, September 2026

Darrell Morrisey’s signature 

This newly discovered painting by Darrell Morrisey is "Tall Ship in Harbour"; on the reverse side is a second painting, "Street Scene". It was Darrell's custom to use both sides of the boards on which she painted; the dimensions of this painting are 30 X 22 cm (11.8 X 8.7 inches) which are similar to the dimensions of Darrell's other paintings. Painting on boards of this size was probably due to having to travel light; Darrell never set up a permanent home of her own, her home base was always her parents' residence in Montreal. 

Another Montreal artist who painted on small boards is James Wilson Morrice, I remember seeing his studies, done in oil, that were on permanent display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; see, for instance, Morrice's painting "Gibraltar" which is 23.5 X 33 cm (9 X 13 inches). 

On the reverse of "Tall Ship in Harbour" is a street scene, possibly a view of residences from a lane. The painting was discarded by Darrell; there is a piece of paper, an illegible note, glued to the front of the painting.   

"Tall Ship in Harbour" joins other paintings by Darrell Morrisey that have been discovered over the last fifteen years. Where, in London, were tall ships docked in the 1920s? There are perhaps two locations and one of them is still the location of tall ships. Darrell spent prolonged periods of time in London in the 1920s; this painting was auctioned from a town near Chistlehurst where she had family friends, the Charles Darrell family, and near where she had been a student around 1913. This is a beginning of a provenance for the painting. 

From being a "forgotten" member of the Beaver Hall Group of artists, Darrell is forgotten no more. We know something of her life, her family, and a collection of her paintings can be seen in my essay at archive.org. It seemed unlikely that we would know as much as we do about her back in 2010 when several of us began researching Darrell's life. 

I've said it before, “I love a mystery”, and discovering the story of Darrell Morrisey's life, and against all odds discovering several of her paintings, has been a mystery I have loved working on. 

"Tall Ship in Harbour" by Darrell Morrisey

Detail of "Tall Ship in Harbour"

Detail of "Tall Ship in Harbour"

Detail of painting and Darrell Morrisey's signature on "Tall Ship in Harbour"

Photo has been enhanced using Chat GPT

Enhanced image (by Chat GPT Artificial Intelligence) of Darrell Morrisey's "Tall Ship in Harbour"

Painting on reverse of "Tall Ship in Harbour" 

Note: Darrell Morrisey was born in Montreal in 1897. At some point Darrell discovered a love for painting and she attended art classes at the Art Association of Montreal on Philips Square. She became a member of the important Beaver Hall Group of artists but, possibly due to her itinerant lifestyle, she never attained the recognition that she deserved. She died in London, UK, in 1930s of a pre-existing illness.

Walking the hidden trail, 29 October 2026

 

Halloween, 31 October 2026

Every year the good people who live here put on a fantastic Halloween display on their front lawn; located on the corner of Chester and Montclair in the NDG Borough.

Canadian Cottage Garden, 29 October 2025

Mid-Morning 

Mid-Afternoon  

Our Canadian cottage garden on 17 October 2026

 

In my time machine, it's 27 October 2010

4350 Montclair Avenue 

At Souvlaki George Restaurant 

At Loyola Campus, Concordia University