Showing 324 results

Helen Moore is a teacher who taught briefly in the Kitwanga and Prince George regions in 1964 and 1965.

Biographical information unavailable.

Leonard Humphreys was a member of the Sudan Civil Service. During Leonard Humphrey’s post as a member in Sudan Civil Service, he took photographs and drew sketches which he later compiled into scrapbooks. The Sudan Civil Service was a branch of the British Civil Service working in Egypt during the period between World War One and the 1950’s.

Biographical information unavailable.

Biographical information unavailable.

Reginald Robinson was born in Stevenage, England. In 1920, he immigrated to Canada. For the next twenty-five years, Robinson was employed in various capacities until Canada became involved in the Second World War and he enlisted in the military. Originally he was stationed in Victoria, BC, but in early 1945 he was shipped to Darwin, Australia, as a member of the secret 1st Canadian Special Wireless Group. While stationed in Darwin, Sergeant Robinson obtained special permission from his commanding officer to photograph the native population, members of the neighboring Aboriginal tribes. During his stay, he also received many artifacts as gifts, which he carefully shipped home to Canada.

After the war, Robinson led an accomplished civilian life. He was the first paid manager of the South Burnaby Credit Union, an active community volunteer, an amateur photographer, and a devoted husband and father.

William Carr was a resident of California who took a boat trip through the Strait of Georgia around 1949-50. In 1995 he donated two rolls of black and white 35 mm film to the Museum shot during this trip for their historical value and possible educational use by First Nations communities.

Biographical information not available.

Ingeborg (Inge) Ruus worked as a Curatorial Assistant at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the UBC in 1975. Prior to completing her studies Ruus worked at MOA as a volunteer in the position of Registrar from 1948-1977. While completing her studies she became involved in an unofficial capacity with the MOA. In 1976 she was instrumental in mounting the Guatemala Highlands exhibit which focused on textiles from that region. In 1977 Ruus was hired by MOA as a Curatorial Assistant specializing in Ethnology. However, due to illness Ruus’s official tenure at MOA was short lived, and she left the museum in the latter part of 1977.

Hindy Ratner graduated with an MA in Museology and Anthropology from the University of Toronto in 1972. Previous to her employment with the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology (MOA) she worked at the National Museum of Man (now the Canadian Museum of Civilization) in Ottawa, and at the BC Provincial Museum as Extension Curator. Ratner served on the ICOM Committee for Ethnology (1977-?), the board of the Jewish Festival of the Arts, and on the board of the BC Touring Council for the Performing Arts (1983-1985). Ratner was hired full time as Extension Curator at MOA in 1977.

Ratner was on a leave-of-absence from May to October 1984, maternity leave from January to July 1985, and on another leave-of-absence from September 1986 until her resignation in February, 1987. Graduate students Margaret Holm and Susan Hull performed Ratner’s duties while she was on leave. The position of Extension Curator was succeeded by the hiring of Rosa Ho as Curator of Art and Public Programmes in January 1988.

Ruth Phillips served as Director of the Museum of Anthropology from 1997 - 2002.

Chief Willie Seaweed, known as Kwaxitola ("Smoky-Top"), was born in 1873 at a time when Kwakwakw'akw culture flourished. He died in 1967 having seen nearly a century of technological change, such as dugout canoes replaced by diesel-powered fishing boats and airplanes. A 'Nakwaxda'xw chief, he was born just eleven years before the passage of the anti-potlatch law. He did, however, create very elaborate art for potlatches. "The name 'Seaweed' is an anglicization of the Kwakwala 'Siwid', which can be translated as 'Paddling owner', 'Recipient of paddling', or 'Paddled to'; all metaphors for a great chief who sponsors potlatches to which guests come from far off" (Holm 1983). Seaweed was a singer, storyteller, wood carver, and artist who kept the traditional potlatches alive through the years in which it was illegal. Willie Seaweed was a traditional artist who passed on his skills to a younger generation and his work is scattered throughout collections in Canada and the United States.

Roy James Hanuse was a Kwakwaka'wakw artist known for working in the traditional Kwakwaka'wakw style. Roy was born in 1943 in Bella Bella and lived at Rivers Inlet (Owikeno), British Columbia. Largely self taught, Roy became interested in his cultural heritage while attending school in Alert Bay in the 1950s. He was later inspired by illustrations of the paintings of Mungo Martin and, in 1971, received some instruction from Doug Cranmer. His work has been exhibited and collected in a number of organizations in North America, including Expo 67. Four of his paintings, sold to the University of British Columbia, were published in Audrey Hawthorn's book Kwakiutl Art in 1979. Other highlights from Roy's career included carving a 12-foot totem for the Denver Art Museum in 1972, and carving two totem poles for the Montreal Olympics in 1976. Roy passed away on November 8, 2007.

Dr. Ida Halpern was an Austrian-born Canadian musicologist who studied the Kwakwa̱ka̱̕wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth,Tlingit, Haida, and Coast Salish communities.

According to the publication Chilcotin: Preserving Pioneer Memories (available at UBC Libraries), George Myers “was a unique individual, born at Riske Creek [originally Chilcoten and also Chilcot], British Columbia on September 10, 1983. He lived to be 95, riding his racehorse in local competition well into his eighties… He worked around the country on ranches… He was honoured as a medicine man among his people... He was buried on the Stone Reserve.”

Henry Young is known as one of the last traditionally trained Haida historians from Skidegate, a Haida community in Haida Gwaii, British Columbia. The Haida Gwaii Museum at Qay'llnagaay’s Oral History Collection fonds includes recorded interviews with Henry Young and Ernie Wilson, a Haida chief (https://www.memorybc.ca/haida-gwaii-museum-at-qayllnagaay-oral-history-collection) . A recording made by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1956 of Susan Williams, Henry Young and Mary Davison singing is also held at the Royal BC Museum Archives (http://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/haida-indian-songs-1956). Also refer to Haida Gwaii : human history and environment from the time of loon to the time of the iron people (2005, UBC Press) edited by Daryl W. Fedje and Rolf W. Mathewes, specifically Chapter 8, which includes a section on Henry Young and his son James Young. The book is available in the Museum of Anthropology Reading Room, call number 12.7c HAI FED 2005. Many of Henry Young’s Haida stories were the inspiration for Bill Reid’s artwork. Bill Reid dedicated his book, The Raven Steals the Light (1984), to Young, the man who first told him about the myths (http://theravenscall.ca/en/who/life_story/print).

E. Polly Hammer graduated from Bethany Nazarene College (now Southern Nazarene University) with a BA in Biology. In 1969 she graduated from the University of Colorado with an MA in Anthropology with an Archaeology focus and a Palaeontology minor. Hammer taught at the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba from 1970 to 1974.