JON WHYTE: Keeper of Place

Introduction

"My Rockies are, I hope, an archetype of anywhere, a complex of folk tale and anecdote, personal experience and Earth, a geography of climate, passion, and place."

- Jon Whyte
December 21, 1982
From The Fells of Brightness: Some Fittes and Starts

Jon delighted in the craft and play and sound of words. He was a poet, historian, storyteller, author, journalist, curator, and conservationist. Jon was born in Banff and claimed he would not choose another place to live. This mountain environment was core to his thoughts and existence. He knew Banff’s past, carried it within him, and cared for its future.

Jon was playful, mischievous, opinionated, witty, knowledgable, imaginative, passionate, prolific, and sometimes obtuse. He was also generous. Jon inspired, supported and encouraged others in their endeavors.

Mountains, memories, the Bow River, family and friends were all inspirations to Jon, themes that recurred again and again in his writings. The heart of Jon’s work is best summed up in his own words:

. . . the movement of history over a place, and how a place becomes its dreams, its ghosts, its memories, its own set of evocative symbols. A neighborhood becomes a universal neighborhood, everyone’s neighborhood, the mattering of place.

- Carol Black, Coordinator of Heritage Collections, and
Craig Richards, Head of Photography, Exhibition Curators

This exhibit coincides with the release of Jon Whyte: Mind Over Mountains, a new edition of Whyte’s works, published by Red Deer College Press and the Whyte Museum. Available in the Museum Shop.

Jon Whyte: Keeper of Place || Whyte Museum