Friday 19 February 2010

British Columbia

As we are in the middle of the Winter Olympics here is a Canadian postcard.  I do not have any of the Vancouver area but I do have a suitably icy one of British Colombia. This is the Stikine ice field west of the Stikine River. One of the few remnants of the once vast ice sheet covering much of North America. The terrain is almost entirely ice cap with even the highest peak sometimes barely projecting above the ice.

But what I mostly like about this card is the fact it is one produced by J Howard A Chapman (?1862-1942) who arrived in Victoria from England in 1890, and at first started to work as a travelling salesman.  He photographed a wide range of places and subjects while on his journeys.  From 1895-1912 he travelled and took photographs throughout British Columbia which is the time this postcard is from. In the years 1912-1936 he concentrated on Vancouver and Victoria and also taking pictures of people.  The provincial archives of British Columbria purchased his photographic collection from him in 1936.

I would love to know where he took the photograph from, I suspect a wooded area near the coast judging from this map.

This Stikine (he spelt it slightly differently on the card) area of Canada must have been quite a trek in that era and even now I think it is sparsely populated.  One of peoples that would have been there when he took this photograph would be the First Nation people, Tahltan
and here is one of his cards, probably from his later photographs, unfortunately not owned by me, but the University of Saskatchawan, showing an "indian bride" from the Tahltan.  They were a nomadic people who hunted and fished both on the coast and inland but the Stikine River was their highway.

Visit The French Factrice for other participants in this Postcard Friendship Friday meme.


4 comments:

Chris Overstreet said...

Aren't these old Canadian wilderness cards great? I have a few by Byron Harmon but this is first time I've seen one by Chapman.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

Very suitably icy, though by all accounts they've been struggling with not enough snow recently!

Good to see another UK based postcard blog. :)

Joy said...

Chris - Yes I like wilderness cards how great to have some Byron Harmon. I love those old photographers and their travels, it was not as though their equipment was lightweight.

Sheila -They should have held it further north LOL; although snow conditions seem better now. Is it my imagination or does this always happen at Winter Games.

Irene said...

Great Canadian Post card. Happy PFF