DIGITAL LIBRARY

Gain a deeper understanding of Banff this summer with a guided tour at The Whyte. From historic homes and townsite stories to newly revised truth-telling interpretation and a brand-new Art Gallery Tour for Thick as Thieves, The Whyte Museum tours invite visitors to slow down, look closer, and connect with the art, history, and culture that shape Banff and the Bow Valley. Whether visiting for the first time or rediscovering familiar places, each tour offers a meaningful way to

Everyone loves a good story, and The Whyte’s Archives are full of them. From Mary Schäffer’s lantern slides and Norquay’s ski history to mountaineering books shaped by decades of research, discover how filmmakers, writers, and historians are using archival collections to bring Canadian Rockies stories back to life. Explore how photographs, letters, film, and field notes continue to inspire new ways of understanding the people, places, and adventures that shaped these mountain

When our eyes touch invites visitors to look again at Catharine and Peter Whyte’s portraits, relationships, and legacy. Through archival research, community engagement, and close attention to portraiture, the exhibition explores intimacy, agency, colonial context, and the humanity behind familiar stories of The Whyte’s founders.

Every summer, The Whyte’s Museum Interpreters bring Banff’s art, history and culture to life. Meet this year’s team and discover how their guided tours help visitors connect with the stories, people and places that shaped the Canadian Rockies. From the Heritage Gallery and Historic Homes to walking tours and summer exhibitions, each experience offers a fresh way to see Banff.

Preparing the winter exhibitions offered an opportunity to reframe Peter and Catharine Whyte’s work. The discovery of numerous sketches from their 1937 Assiniboine trip, alongside Catharine’s vivid letters and Peter’s annotated photographs, revealed a richer story. Arranged chronologically, the exhibition invites viewers to follow the journey from bright autumn days through the gathering storm to a landscape transformed by fresh snow.

From delicate studio portraits to sweeping mountain panoramas, the Luxton Family Collection reveals how photographs reflect the lives, values, and curiosities of those who framed them. Spanning 1860 to 1960, the images trace evolving photographic practices, personal stories, and a changing Rockies landscape, from ornate Victorian portraits to early panoramic views of Banff, offering a vivid window into a century of memory, craft, and place.

Fourteen years later, the Fireside Chats at The Whyte remained a warm, community gathering. As Director of Archives and Special Collections Elizabeth Kundert-Cameron observed at the final event, familiar faces returned year after year, and Chic’s stories “evoked… the feeling of being at a family party.” What began as an open house in the Abegweit became a recorded oral history, preserved in The Whyte's Archives and Special Collections Library for future generations.