Accession Number

2012.007.001.159

Description

One sepia toned photograph of three small wooden buildings beside a body of water. The building left has a sign in upper-case lettering the reads: "WHITE PASS AND YUKON ROUTE...(and more indistinct text)". Beyond them is a small sternwheeler steamboat, and beyond it, a group of snow-covered mountains. At mid-ground in front of two buildings are teams of horses with wagons.

Narrative

This photograph might have been taken in Atlin, B.C. which is situated beside Atlin Lake. It was probably taken by a member of the Dunsmuir family.

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 Atlin on about August 17, 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

11.3 x 17 cm