John Ramsey McGregor ("Mac") Hone was born in 1920 in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. He was a participant in the early Emma Lake Art Schools, and studied with Gus Kenderdine, Ernest Lindner, Jack Shadboldt, and Will Barnet. He received a BA (1941) from the University of Saskatchewan, and from 1958-1959 studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, England. He taught school in Saskatchewan and British Columbia from 1947-1979; during the 1950s he also taught art class in Moose Jaw for the University of Saskatchewan (Regina Campus). From 1976-1981 he served on the Minister's Committee on the Fine Arts in Education. His artworks included serigraph, woodcut, wood engraving, watercolour, oil, acrylic, photography, and sculpture. Mac died in 2007. Both Mac and Beth Hone have had their work shown extensively in solo and group exhibitions.

Jean Shepherd (nee Ruryk) was associated with the Emma Lake Art Camp and while there, met artists Ernie Lindner, Wynona (Nonie) Mulcaster, Eva Mendel, Bob Porter, Norm Caplin, ‘Doc’ Palsson, and McGregor Hone. Likely during the early years of the 1940s, Jean moved to Montreal; and many of the artists mentioned were involved to some extent in war service, including Mac Hone, who was a welder in the Vancouver shipyards. This collection contains several illustrated letters from Mac Hone to Jean Ruryk, as well as photographs of Ernie, Bodil and Degner Linder.