A 1901 photograph of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur boats being pulled upstream on the Athabasca River, Alberta, taken by C W Mathers on an expedition to the far north of Canada and published in his book ‘The Far North’. Mathers captioned this photograph: Indians [First Nations people] tracking the ’so. fur boats up the rapids on Athabasca River, from Fort McMurray to Grand Rapids, 87 miles is almost one continuous rapid.
A 1901 photograph of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s fur boats being pulled upstream on the Athabasca River, Alberta, taken by C W Mathers on an expedition to the far north of Canada and published in his book ‘The Far North’. Mathers captioned this photograph: Indians [First Nations people] tracking the ’so. fur boats up the rapids on Athabasca River, from Fort McMurray to Grand Rapids, 87 miles is almost one continuous rapid. Charles Wesley Mathers (1868–1950) was born in Ontario, Canada. Mathers purchased a photographic studio in Edmonton, Alberta in 1893. He travelled extensively in western and northern Canada, and in 1901 a trip with trader William Connors took him north, starting along the Athabasca River in Alberta. He reached various forts and Hudson Bay Company outposts, keeping a photographic record of his journey. Next year Mathers published a booklet, ‘The Far North’, with over twenty images – his captions were hand-written in the photographic plate. Many of the pictures included indigenous First Nations people, some of whom he captioned as ‘Indians’. This image is scanned from the book. The printed image is relatively small and there are blemishes. Some major reproduction faults have been retouched digitally – if used large this image will look grainy.
Size: 2953px × 2186px
Location: Grand Rapids, Athabasca River, Alberta, Canada
Photo credit: © M&N / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1900s, 20th, adventure, alberta, american, athabasca, bay, boat, canada, canadian, century, charles, company, country, early, expedition, grand, haul, hudson, hudsons, indian, indigenous, keelhaul, mathers, nation, nations, native, north, people, peoples, photograph, photographer, pull, rapids, river, scow, ship, trading, traditional, transport, travel, twentieth, upsteam, victorian
