Jump to content.

Photo of Spalding

Capturing History

Joseph Frederick Spalding: Photographer—Tourist—Visionary

Introduction to the Joseph F. Spalding Project

Spalding ad from 1905 An example of one of Spalding's advertisements as it appeared in a 1905 Souvenir Edition of the Fernie Free Press.

This website pays homage to the career of photographer Joseph Frederick Spalding, and provides an introduction to his contributions to photography, culture, and tourism, both for Fernie and British Columbia. It is the result of a collaborative project between the Fernie & District Historical Society and the Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) Program located at the University of Victoria. The CURA program, generously funded by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, has enabled the University to partner with heritage organizations throughout British Columbia to help research and document special collections of cultural property. The photographic images on this site represent a sample of the collection from the holdings of the Fernie & District Historical Society.

As always, we are grateful for the dedicated efforts of historical societies and museums in preserving and cataloguing documents such as these with a view to benefiting future generations. In particular, the Fernie & District Historical Society would like to thank Dr. Lorne Hammond, Curator of History at the Royal British Columbia Museum and Adjunct Professor in the History Department at the University of Victoria, who served as Co-Director on the Spalding Project. Leslie Hall, Gillian Murray, and Karen Waugh, students at the University of Victoria, assisted Dr. Hammond in accessing, cataloguing, and researching the photographic collections of Joseph Frederick Spalding located at the British Columbia Archives and the Vancouver Public Library. Michael Pennock of the Fernie & District Historical Society, served as Co-Director and, assisted by students Tom Aylward and Jason Shulist, conducted research in Fernie and the surrounding area. Karen Waugh, Jan Gates, and Tusa Shea developed the text and selected photographic images for the website, and Jeffrey Werner was responsible for website design. Professor Martin Segger and students at the University of Victoria’s Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery assisted with the final editing of this website. David Broom and Michael Huston from the University’s Studio for Integrated Media helped with the necessary technical specifications for hosting the website on the University of Victoria’s web server.

For further information on the CURA program at the University of Victoria, please visit http://cura.uviv.ca