Peaks and People

Welcome back to Behind the Exhibit! If you haven’t read Part I yet, start here . Archives & Library intern Amie Lalonde  After planning the content and structure of my exhibit, it was time to start digitizing photographs and textual materials. Over several weeks, I scanned: 303 individual pictures, two albums (that resulted in 480 digital images), 23 documents, and digitized 1 audio file. These 806 digital images came from eleven different archival collections including: the Moore Family fonds, Jim Brewster Family fonds, Pat Brewster fonds, Fred Brewster fonds, Peter and Catharine Whyte and foundation fonds, George Paris fonds, George Vaux X fonds, Helen Wells fonds, and the Banff School District No. 102 fonds. The digitization of archival photographs serves two main purposes:  One is increased access to a portion of the vast photographic collection held in the Archives and Library. While only a fraction of the digitized photographs ended up in the d...

Mountain Women: The Lives of Pearl Brewster Moore and Edmée Moore Reid of Banff  by Amie Lalonde Amie Lalonde joined the Whyte Museum in November through the Young Canada Works internship grant. Amie is a recent graduate from the University of Toronto where she completed her Masters in History in June 2017. Amie’s work in the archives includes, yet is not limited to preservation, arrangement and description of collections in the archives, Amie’s main project is to digitize and curate a digital exhibit on Pearl and Edm é e Moore. Amie has  researched and pulled images and text from various collections to create the online exhibit. This exhibit will provide visitors, local and non-local alike, with a valuable peek into the lives of two Banff women and the community that surrounded them. The Stories Mountain Women: The Lives of Pearl Brewster Moore and Edmée Moore Reid of Banff started off several months ago with an idea to tell the stories of two women born and r...

Lizzie Rummel’s Legacy at Skoki Lodge One of the things that you might notice while reading SkiBig3: How Did We Get Here?  series is that at each step of the way someone made a unique impact on a place. For Mount Norquay, it was Cliff White whose determination to develop skiing in the Canadian Rockies shone through to build that first cabin and establish the first ski club. Cliff then shifted his gaze towards Lake Louise and the Skoki Valley where he would, once again, launch a dream; this time of a backcountry ski lodge. In 1931, Skoki Lodge opened and was initially run as a club operation. The first season saw 48 signatures in the register, almost all of them Banff residents. At this point the lodge did not appear to have a manager. Over the years, and for many different reasons Skoki would be managed by a number of different people, including our founders Peter & Catharine Whyte. However, this post will celebrate a woman whose hospitality, knowledge of the mounta...

In 2018 visitors to Banff National Park have the great privilege to ski at three world-class resorts: Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise Ski Resort and Mt. Norquay. Skibums and boarders alike can pick their favourite or try all three while staying in the beautiful Banff and Lake Louise area.  But how did we get here? Who first skied these mountains? What did it take to carve the runs into the mountainside? Who built the first cabins and started the first ski clubs? The following series of blog posts entitled SkiBig3: How Did We Get Here?, will feature one key ski pioneer who made the difference in the early days of each (or multiple) of our beloved SkiBig3 resorts. Cliff White and The Mighty Quay V683/1/C/2/b-PA139-112, Cliff White at Mount Norquay Clifford White Sr. was born in Banff on February 13 th , 1902 to Dave and Annie White. Along with his brother Peter, Cliff White was among the first in Banff to pursue skiing in the Canadian Rockies. Thanks to the well-known a...

Instead of starting the new year with fireworks and champagne we here at the Whyte Museum decided to start the year off with ART, and lots of it! Following renovations that took place in November/December 2017 we are happy to announce that our Founders' Gallery is open once again with a new look, feel, and exhibition.  After many years of hanging artwork after artwork on the walls, the walls themselves needed to be replaced with a tougher material. We now have strong and fresh looking walls that provide the perfect background for our collection.  Our curatorial team then took a page out of 19th century France and hung the gallery salon style in favour of conventional formats. The floor to ceiling installation gives the observer more artwork to look at, more connections to make and more stories to explore. Accompanying the artwork is an exhibition booklet that contains information on each piece in the gallery. Visitors can learn about the artists, the hist...

It’s hard to believe that 2017 is nearing its end. Here at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies we’d like to look back on 2017 and recall some of our top moments of the year. So get cozy by the fire with a warm drink in your hand and reminisce with us… Fireside Chats Are you warm and cozy by the fire? Because we had some great Fireside Chats this past year with Chic Scott and his guests. An oral history tradition at the Whyte Museum that has continued since the time of our founder Catharine Robb Whyte, Fireside Chats look to preserve the stories of the mountains and the people who have made their homes in them.            The first Fireside Chat of 2017 saw Eddie Hunter cross-examining his interviewer Chic, while the second took us on a journey from Austria to Canada with Leo Grillmair. Both events had record numbers of attendees, from 140-160 members of the community filling (and maybe slightly overfilling) our Heritage Gallery. Th...