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In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, travelling within North American borders or beyond to exotic locations was difficult at best and disastrous at worst. Mary Schaffer, born into a Pennsylvania-based Quaker family in 1861, not only conquered international travel but also excelled as an explorer, surveyor and photographer in the backcountry of Canada's Rocky Mountains and the isolated communities of Japan and Formosa (now Taiwan). Michale Lang's new book features more than 200 of Mary Schaffer's colourful, hand-painted lantern slides from the archives of the Whyte Musem of the Canadian Rockies. These unique works of art detail some of the indigenous people and breathtaking landscapes of the Rocky Mountains, along with tribal communities of Japan and Formosa. Schaffer's writing, Michale Lang's accompanying narrative and the book's overall design (inspired by the work of Barbara Hodgson, author and designer of The Tattooed Map, No Place for a Lady and Opium) opens a unique window on the Victorian obsession with international travel and discovery.
Mary Sch'ffer was a photographer, writer, and cartographer from Philadelphia, well known for her work in the Canadian Rockies at the turn of the twentieth century. Colleen Skidmore's engrossing study asks new questions, tells new stories, and introduces women and men with whom Sch'ffer interacted and collaborated. It argues for new ways of thinking about the significance and impact of Sch'ffer's work on historical and contemporary conceptions of women's experiences in histories and societies in which gender is fundamental to the distribution of power. Scholars and readers of women's photography and writing histories, as well as wilderness and mountain studies, will make new discoveries in Searching for Mary Sch'ffer.
Artist, photographer, writer, world traveler and, above all, explorer, Mary Schaffer Warren overcame the limited expectations of women at the turn of the nineteenth century in order to follow her dreams.Mary, born into a wealthy Quaker family in Pennsylvania, was a precocious child who excelled at school. She was much more interested in the arts and traveling. A trip across Canada in 1889 proved the turning point in Mary's life. Not only did she meet her future husband-doctor and botanist Charles Schaffer-she also fell hopelessly in love with the mountains.After Charles' death, Mary embarked on explorations into the Canadian Rockies at a time when it was not thought proper for a woman to do so. Her most famous trips of 1907 and 1908 resulted in the rediscovery of Maligne Lake and the highly regarded book Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies. Mary eventually settled in Banff and there married her handsome young guide Billy Warren.Since her death in 1937, she continues to inspire young people and women in particular.
"We seemed to have reached that horizon, and the limit of all endurance, to sit with folded hands and listen calmly to the stories of the hills we so longed to see, the hills which had lured and beckoned us for years before this long list of men had ever set foot in the country." Mary T.S. Schaffer The year 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies, one of the best selling books ever published on the mountains of western Canada. In celebration of this remarkable work of mountain literature, RMB is thrilled to issue a Limited Edition hardcover of Schaffer's classic. Complete with Janice Sanford Beck's Foreword and a new selection of archival colour and black and white photos, Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies will most certainly continue to enthral generations of readers, explorers and tourists for another one hundred years.
Highlights the contributions of women to photographic history.
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