James Francis Kenney, archivist, author, and historian, was born in 1884 at Marysville, Ont. and educated in the Belleville, Ontario public school system. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a B.A. in 1907 and from the University of Wisconsin with an M.A. in 1908. He obtained a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1929 after completion of the thesis The Sources for the Early History of Ireland. Dr. Kenney came on staff at the Public Archives in 1912. In 1926 he became Director of Historical Research and Publicity at the Archives and he served as Acting Dominion Archivist from 1935 to 1937.

Dr. Kenney died at his home in Ottawa on 4 June 1946. A further source of biographical information is an obituary written by A.L. Burt on Dr. Kenney for the Canadian Historical Review XXVII (December, 1946), p. 463.

Fonds consists of addresses, 1934-1945; book reviews, 1918-1939; correspondence, 1901-1945; publications, 1831-1949; manuscripts, 1906-1945; research notes, 1820-1945; diaries, 1903-1914, 1927.

Fonds contains photographs of staff and events at the Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.; Fort Prince of Wales, Man.; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; models of cities and towns in the Holy Land; photos of Dr. Kenney; the return of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, March 1919, Ottawa, Ont.; unveiling of statue of Queen Victoria on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Ont, 1901; banquet of the American Archivists, Mayflower Hotel, Washington. D.C., 18 June 1937; a view of the Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa, Ont. 1901-1937.

Fonds also contains one painting by Homer Ransford Watson entitled "Ice Jam at Doon, Ontario"; and a painting entitled "Galt"[Ontario].

Received in 1964, 1979 and 1982 from the Jesuit Fathers of Upper Canada through E.J. Dowling, s.j. of Toronto, Ont.