The Vaux Collection

“I understand that you have both been very active in establishing a museum in Banff dealing with local subjects. I have still retained hundreds of negatives and prints made in the Rockies from about 1886 to 1910 by my family. I’ve never known what particular use could be made of them but wonder whether this is a type of thing that interests you . . .”
– From a letter written by George Vaux III to “Pete and Catharine,” June 13, 1965

Pete and Catharine’s museum opened its doors in June of 1968 and the following year, George Vaux made the first of many donations to their collection. Over the years and many donations later, the Vaux collection has become one of the most important in the museum’s holdings, having components in all three of our collecting areas: Archives, Heritage Collection and Art Collection.

The Vaux family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were photographers, mountaineers and scientists. Mary Vaux, 1860-1940, George Vaux Jr., 1863-1927, and William S. Vaux Jr., 1872-1908, were the children of George Vaux Sr., 1832-1915. They were one of the oldest and most prominent Philadelphia Quaker families. They saw the mountains of western Canada for the first time in 1887, while travelling on the recently completed Canadian Pacific Railway and staying at Glacier House in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia.

The Vaux family fell under the spell of the Canadian Alps and made frequent visits to the Selkirk and Rocky Mountains over the next two decades to study the Illecillewaet, Asulkan and other glaciers, and to photograph, paint and climb. In Glacier Observations, 1907, George Jr. and William S. Jr. wrote, “Of all the phenomena that attract the nature lover in the high mountains, possibly none is more interesting than the glaciers.” Mary would later marry Dr. Charles Walcott, the noted geologist and invertebrate paleontologist, and visit the Rockies every summer until 1939. She was a hardy, self-reliant woman, an active member of the Alpine Club of Canada, and a skilled botanical painter.

George, William and Mary Vaux were all involved in photography in the early 1880s and were members of the Photographic Society of Philadelphia, one of the oldest and most respected photographic organizations in the United States. George’s and Mary’s photographic work centered on the mountain landscape, while William’s concentrated upon the movement and physical features of glaciers. The two brothers took most of the photographs in the mountains, particularly with the large format cameras, while Mary was responsible for the technical work on the photographs and did all of the printing. The Vaux siblings exhibited their work in Philadelphia and lectured for the Photographic Society. Their photographs were also highly regarded by the, who used them in publicity brochures at the turn of the century, and provided the Vaux family with free railway passes to travel west from Montreal.

The Vaux family fonds in the Whyte Museum’s Archives include photographs, motion pictures and papers. The photographs include landscape studies and scenic views of the Selkirk and Rocky Mountains; glaciers in the Selkirk and Rocky Mountains; Canadian Pacific Railway in the Selkirks and Canadian Pacific Railroad hotels at Glacier and Field, B.C., and Lake Louise and Banff, Alberta; as well as images of climbing and other mountain activities. Negatives include both glass (958 items) and film negatives (1748 items). Prints, albums and transparencies contain similar material. These were all donated by George Vaux III between 1969 and 1986.

Following the passing of George Vaux III in 1996, his family – daughters Molly Vaux and Katharine (Trina) Vaux McCauley, along with son-in-law Hugh McCauley – carried out their father’s wish for the remainder of the Rocky Mountain material, his family’s and his own, to come to the Whyte Museum.

Huge cardboard crates arrived at our door and were unpacked to reveal additional photographic material, published and unpublished manuscripts, as well as the photographic, mountaineering and survey equipment used on the Vaux family's many trips to the Rockies and Selkirks. The cameras are works of art in themselves. They were used to take the photos in our Archives and now reside in our Heritage Collection. Many of the photographs also feature the various equipment the family used. To be able to spot the very camera, ice axe or compass in use, in photographs that are a century old, adds a whole new dimension to both the objects and the photographs.

We greatly appreciate this most recent addition to the Vaux collection and look forward to developing a major exhibition incorporating all of its components.

— Carol Black, Coordinator of Heritage Collections

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