Joseph
Frederick Spalding - Photographer - Tourist - Visionary
Community
Partners:
Fernie and
District Historical Society
Project Directors:
Michael Pennock, Fernie and District Historical Society
Email: fdhs_chin@elkvalley.net
Dr. Lorne Hammond, Royal BC Museum and Department of History,
University of Victoria
Email: lhammond@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca
Student
Researchers:
Directed Studies: Gillian Murray, Visual Arts
HRDC Summer Career Placement: Tom Alyward, McMaster University;
Jason Shulist, Lethbridge University; Karen Waugh, History
Youth Community Action Program: Leslie Hall, History
Joseph Frederick Spalding was a prolific commercial photographer
active in BC from 1904 to 1958. From 1904 to 1924, Spalding worked
from a studio in Fernie, BC. During this time he photo-documented
not only the activities in the town, but as a writer and tourism
commissioner, most of southern BC and the mountain parks of the
Rockies.
Over
800 of Spalding's photographs in the collection of the Fernie
and District Historical Society are the basis of this project.
The research team will present Spalding's work as it relates to:
-
His work with the Fernie Free Press and the District Ledger
from 1904 to 1910
- His
Automobile Road Guides during the period 1912 to 1918
- His
work as Tourism Commissioner for the Tourist Association of
southern BC and southern Alberta from 1919 to 1924
- His
recording of the commercial, industrial and social events of
Fernie.
Results
from this project were displayed in the exhibition "Capturing
History: The Photography of Joseph Frederick Spalding",
held by the Fernie and District Historical Society from August
26 to September 21, 2002. In addition, Michael Pennock has contributed
a chapter on Spalding in a recently published book, A
World Apart: The Crowsnest Communities of Alberta and British
Columbia (Kamloops: Plateau Press, 2002). The Fernie
and District Historical Society will make further project results
available through the Society's website.
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Victoria
Ave. Fernie B.C. |
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Ruins
of the Bank of Commerce in Fernie B.C. after the Fire August
1, 1908 |
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Joseph
Spalding |
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