Peaks and People

Known for her generosity and love of people, Catharine continues to play a vital role in the vision of the Whyte Museum. Artist, philanthropist, community leader, and friend, she was a significant figure in the Bow Valley. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, Catharine selected the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to study art. There, in 1925, she would meet Peter Whyte. They would marry in June of 1930. An avid letter and diary writer, Catharine’s descriptions of the places she visited and the people she met are a testament to the vast appreciation she had for the Canadian Rocky Mountains. With over 400 paintings, Catharine was an accomplished landscape and portrait artist. Catharine’s paintings illustrated and reflected her own emotions. As her nephew, Jon Whyte once remarked, “People may read her landscapes as simple depiction but this always dynamic, congenial, considerate, charitable and democratic woman, her face illuminated by a smile and her love of life, create...

The Work of Giants Glaciology and Glacial Retreat in the Canadian Rockies Guest Writer Eden Luymes,  Summer Interpreter 2018  The Illecillewaet Glacier in 1898, with the glacier’s extent in 1887 marked on a rock. For centuries, glaciers have been hard at work. Like giant sculptors, ancient glaciers carved out entire valleys and chiseled towering mountains. They continue to supply lakes, rivers, and even distant oceans with water. They are ever changing; always moving and flowing. The only constant for these impressive giants is change. However, that change is becoming increasingly rapid, and increasingly permanent: our glaciers are retreating.  The first people to study glaciers in the Canadian Rockies were the Vaux family. A Quaker family from Philadelphia, they first visited these mountains in the summer of 1887, and would make many return trips to the region. Mary, George, and William Vaux, all siblings, took an interest in these glaciers whe...