Research Round Up: Stories From the Archives at The Whyte
- whytemuseum
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
By Kate Riordon, Reference Archivist
Everyone loves a good story.
While local libraries and internet forums are full of the fanciful and factual stories people have dreamed up or lived themselves, there are unknowable numbers of extraordinary tales to be found in archives, waiting to be rediscovered.
From the Archives to the Page, Screen, and Trail
An archive is a deceptively simple thing. At its core, its sole purpose is to provide safe haven for the collected material of a person’s life – their photographs, letters, diaries – in the hopes that one day some intrepid explorer comes looking for the stories they hold. True, there are a fair number of business ledgers and meeting minutes in here too, but treasure comes in many forms; it just depends on the kind of story you want to tell.
Arguably, one of the most important parts of a good story are the characters. Lucky for us, Banff has been populated by some real characters since the beginning and most of their stuff has, in one way or another, made its way here to The Whyte.
Of course, there’s more than one way to tell a story. These are four ways storytellers are using The Whyte’s Archives to tell theirs:
Following Mary Schäffer’s Footsteps
In 1908, Mary Schäffer became the first settler to lay eyes on Maligne Lake (Chaba Îmne) in Jasper National Park. Three years later, she became the first woman hired by the Canadian government to complete the official survey for the area. More than 100 years later, Mary and her story inspired director Trixie Pacis and historian/writer Meghan J. Ward to recreate that 1911 surveying trip.
Studying Mary’s published works and her vast collection of lantern slides housed in The Whyte’s Archives, Pacis, Ward, and their all-female team set out to document a six-day horse packing and paddling trip in the summer of 2023 that followed Mary’s final stretch to Maligne. Including footage filmed in our Archives, original art from Indigenous artists, and reflecting on what being a woman in the wilderness entails, Wildflowers “blends backcountry adventure with a historical deep-dive to explore the themes that bond two writers living a century apart.”
Premiering at the 2024 Banff Mountain Film & Book Festival, it has been featured at 8 additional film festivals and in dozens of podcasts and publications, including Canadian Geographic. It’s currently available to stream on Amazon Prime and the Knowledge Network.
A Love Letter to Mount Norquay
Despite being a place more often associated with books and paper, our Archives contains a huge amount of motion picture material – some of which was included in Sherpas Cinema’s 2025 film, The Mighty Quay.
From the days of leather boots and hand-made wooden skis, to the rise of snowboarding, and then looking ahead to the next 100 years, The Mighty Quay brought together locals and legends in celebration of 100 years of “Banff’s backyard” hill.
Filming interviews in our Archives and the stately Abegweit-on-the-Bow, bringing archival photos, promotional posters, and movie clips to life through creative editing, and highlighting the stories of the people who’ve worked so hard to keep this special place going, the movie made a splash at its 2025 Banff Mountain Film & Book Festival premiere. Now available for free on Norquay’s website and YouTube, The Mighty Quay is a love letter to an outdoor community’s beloved hill.
That’s the great thing about movies as a storytelling tool: you can pack 100 years of recreation, athleticism, and community into a 35-minute package that leaves audiences inspired and informed.
But not everyone is born to be a filmmaker. For some, the best way to tell a story is to write it all down.
Writing the Alpine Club of Canada Into History
Chic Scott takes “write it all down” to heart with every project he sets his pen to, and his upcoming definitive history of the Alpine Club of Canada, This Way to the Stars, will be no exception.
Commissioned by the Club in 2021, Scott settled into what is now considered “his spot” in The Whyte’s Archives and spent the next 2 years going through practically every millimetre of the ACC’s approximately 42 metres of material. End-to-end, that’s almost as tall as the Banff Springs Hotel.
Covering the Club’s history from its inception in 1906 all the way through to the 2020s, and hitting shelves in early 2027, Scott writes that this book “will be a reference work for mountain historians for hundreds of years to come.” Featuring 300,000 words and 750 photographs over 500 pages, “it would not,” he says, “have been possible without the Archives.”
He’s a real charmer.
But, naturally, mountaineers make for great characters. Whether they’re the ones doing the writing or the ones being written about, the people who make their homes in these mountains are guaranteed to have a good yarn or two to tell.
The People Behind the Peaks
In their upcoming book Behind the Ranges, Zac Robinson and Stephen Slemon are giving a platform to those who may not have always been at the forefront of the narrative. Focusing on supporting characters from the “Golden Age” of mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies, this book will shine a light on the people who made it possible for valleys to be travelled and peaks to be summited. Through archival research and community dialogue, Robinson and Slemon attempt to “uncover the colonialist, patriarchal, and class-based assumptions that led explorers and climbers to the heights and then organized their ways of writing about it."
A side of the story often overlooked, and featuring detailed correspondence found in collections across our Archives, Behind the Ranges: A History of Early Mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies comes out in April 2027.
The Next Story Is Waiting in the Archives at The Whyte
Like any good lover of stories, an archive is always hungry for more.
More tales of adventure, more historic epics, more love letters – in whatever form they take. Whether looking for a story to sweep you away or for characters to help populate your own, you might just find some in your local archives.
Just be sure to let us know what you find – we do so love a good story.
Interested in discovering more stories from the Canadian Rockies?
Plan your visit online and explore The Whyte’s exhibitions, collections, and Archives Reading Room. Archives and Special Collections appointments are available Tuesday to Friday, 1 to 5 p.m., and can be booked in advance by emailing archives@whyte.org.
You can also learn more about the people, places, and stories that shaped Banff and the Canadian Rockies by visiting our online database.
The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 111 Bear Street, Banff, AB.
Image Descriptions:
Image 1: Meghan Ward examines archival materials while researching for the Wildflowers documentary in the Archives and Special Collections Library at The Whyte in Banff.
Image 2: Wildflowers title screen capture with film credits and festival laurels.
Image 3: Mighty Quay title screen capture.
Image 4: Book cover of Behind the Ranges and A History of Early Mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies by Zac Robinson and Stephen Slemon.
Image 5: ACC camp, Yoho, birdseye view of Yoho Glacier, [ca. 1914], Byron Harmon fonds (V263/NA-153)
Gallery 1 (L to R):
[Group of Alpine Club of Canada climbers looking into crevasse], [ca. 1915], Mary Schaffer fonds (V527/PS 1-335)
Primula McCallian MacCalla’s Primula, [ca. 1910], Mary Schaffer fonds (V527/PS 1-203)
[Mary Schaffer with horse], 1908, Mary Schaffer fonds (V527/PS1-151)
[Building a raft at mouth of Maligne Lake], 1908, Mary Schaffer fonds (V527/PS 1-74)
On the High Hill below Wilcox Pass, 1908, Mary Schaffer fonds (V527/PS 1-57)
Gallery 2 (L to R):
[Ski jumper at Norquay], [ca. 1958], Peter & Catharine Whyte fonds (V683/III/A/1/PD-8/18-01)
[Molson ski race], [ca. 1970], Bruno Engler fonds (V190/VI/S/ii/a/PA-15)
[Norquay sightseeing gondola], [ca. 1960], Bruno Engler fonds (V190/VI/N/i/NA-33)
[Skier jumping two people], [ca. 1960], Bruno Engler fonds (V190/VI/A/ii/PA-31)
[Skis outside Norquay ski lodge], [ca. 1935], Peter & Catharine Whyte fonds (V683/III/A/5/PA-118)
Gallery 3 (L to R):
[Founding members of the ACC], 1906, Alpine Club of Canada fonds (V14/AC 00P/77)
[ACC Clubhouse], [ca. 1915], Alpine Club of Canada fonds (V14/AC 0P/809/PS-14)
[Mt. Assiniboine], [ca. 1915], Alpine Club of Canada fonds (V14/AC 0P/809/PS-09)
Robson, top of Resplendent, 1913, Byron Harmon fonds (V263/NA-1091)
[Climbers], [ca. 1920], Henry Pollard, photographer, Alpine Club of Canada fonds (V14/AC 29P/1-27)
[ACC Clubhouse], [ca. 1950], Alpine Club of Canada fonds (V14/AC 199P/NS-80)
[Club members on a snow slope], [ca. 1920], Henry Pollard, photographer, Alpine Club of Canada fonds (V14/AC 29P/2-35
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