Accession Number

2012.007.001.144

Description

One sepia toned photograph of four men standing in the foreground on a train platform, behind them a two-story wooden railway building. A large group of men stand off in the background.

Narrative

This 1901 photograph might have been taken at Caribou Crossing (renamed Carcross in 1904), Yukon Territory. A less likely possibility is Skagway, Alaska. The train and related infrastructure is part of the White Pass and Yukon Railway.

In August 1901, Premier James Dunsmuir and about 20 other family members and associates traveled to northern British Columbia and Alaska aboard the Dunsmuir steamer, SS Joan, named for Joan Dunsmuir. They visited Port Essington at the confluence of the Skeena and Ecstall Rivers before steaming north to Skagway, Alaska, from where they travelled to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.¹   James Dunsmuir testified at an enquiry in 1902 and stated that he was in Caribou Crossing on August 16, 1901.²

1. Victoria Daily Colonist, August 30, 1901 p5
2. Victoria Daily Colonist, April 24, 1902 p5

History of Use

This photograph was taken in 1901 and placed in an album created by the James and Laura Dunsmuir family at Burleith, their home on Victoria's Gorge Waterway. In 1906 it was probably taken by the family to Victoria's Government House where they lived while James served as British Columbia's eighth Lieutenant Governor. From there it was taken to the family's new house, Hatley Park, in 1910.

Sometime after Laura Miller Dunsmuir's death in 1937, the album became the property of Dola Frances Dunsmuir (also known as Mrs. Dola Cavendish) and was kept at her house Dolaura in Colwood, B.C. After hear death, the album was owned by her sister Kathleen's daughter, Judith Humphreys (also known as Mrs. Judith Joy). Her daughter donated the album to Craigdarroch Castle in 2012.

Date

1901

Dimensions

8.3 x 11.2 cm

Support

Paper, Photographic paper