Christine Flora Bissell
Until recently the significant contributions to public life made by the wives of overwhelmingly male office holders, have been largely ignored. Christine Bissell was recognized as a gifted hostess: warm, exuberant, hospitable, and very witty. Visitors to 93 Highland Avenue during ‘the Bissell years’ - whether writers, politicians, professors, visual artists, students, or performers - might arrive expecting dull institutional correctness. They left in high spirits feeling the unbound vigour of the University’s intellectual and social community. John Alfsen’s portrait of Christine Bissell records the presence of a spirited woman who enlivened and strengthened both the intellectual and social community of the University of Toronto for 23 years.
Person TypeIndividual
Canadian, 1917 - 2005