Accession Number

2012.007.001.147

Description

One sepia toned photograph of a group of men and women in a rocky ditch panning for gold in a raised wooden trough.

Narrative

This 1901 photograph may have been taken near the town of Whitehorse, Yukon. The apparel of many of the men and women suggests that this mining operation might have been geared for the tourist trade.

The woman in the darkly-coloured costume fifth from left is probably Laura Miller Dunsmuir. The eighth person from left looking down into the trough might be BC Premier James Dunsmuir. The gentleman fourth from right might be John William Bryden. 

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   

1. Victoria Daily Colonist, August 30, 1901 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

8.5 x 11 cm

Support

Paper, Photographic paper