Byron Harmon at Fortress Lake, 1924 / by Lewis Freeman  (WMCR-V263/NA-2400)

Byron Hill Harmon (1876-1942) made thousands of photographs in the Canadian west over nearly forty years. His stunning mountain photographs, reproduced in millions of copies, became known throughout the world through postcards, framing prints and souvenir view books. His photographs appeared in numerous publications and his early motion picture footage was sold to major distributors. Harmon’s mountain views were sold to passengers on the Canadian Pacific Railway, collected by tourists and exhibited in Canada and abroad. In his life-time, Harmon’s photographs brought him renown. They continue to inspire admiration today.

The surviving Harmon photographs are preserved and made accessible through the Archives and Library of the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies as part of the Byron Harmon fonds. All the premier Harmon negatives (circa 6,500 items) have been scanned and are accessible through the Alberta Insight database.

This teacher’s guide has been prepared to introduce students to Byron Harmon’s world through his wonderful photographs. Exercises have been developed, sets of images selected and resource materials assembled to facilitate the discovery process. No doubt you and your students will find new ways to view, compare and appreciate these wonderful photographs, using these materials as a starting point. We hope you will enjoy this process and we look forward to your comments about improving the guide, exercises, and resource materials.

Byron Harmon, photographer, filmmaker and entrepreneur, made his first photographs in the Canadian Rockies in 1903 on a photographic trek that began at his home near Tacoma, Washington, USA. After working as an itinerant photographer, he settled in Banff, Alberta amidst the Canadian Rocky Mountains and began to fulfill his goal of photographing the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains in their many moods. In his annual trips as official photographer to the Alpine Club of Canada and on privately organized expeditions, Harmon accomplished this goal in the 1920s, but continued to actively photograph and publicize the mountain west until his death in 1942 at age 66. (See Biography)

Family members continued the Harmon photographic businesses and entrusted the preservation and public access for the Byron Harmon fonds to the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in 1978. Today students, artists, scientists, historians, mountaineers, writers and filmmakers continue to use Byron Harmon’s photographs to better understand the mountain landscape and Byron Harmon’s world throughout the first four decades of the twentieth century.

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