Jasper from top of coal chutes
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Special Train for Sir A. Conan Doyle to Mount Robson
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Crossing Athabasca river, Sir A. Conan Doyle and party on horseback
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Press Excursion Party at Summit [Yellowhead Pass]
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Leaving Donald Phillips’s Camp near Robson Railway Station
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

Pack train at Donald Phillips’s camp
Photo: William James Topley, 1914
Library and Archives Canada [accessed 10 October 2025]

June 11 – 19, 1914

In the spring of 1914, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [1859–1930] (of Sherlock Holmes fame) was invited to travel on the newly opened Grand Trunk Pacific Railway from Montreal to Jasper National Park. Conan Doyle accepted the invitation, and he and his wife, Jean Leckie, conducted the trip between May and July, 1914. The point of the expedition was to promote the Canadian West and its newly minted national park.

The official photographer for the journey was the celebrated William James Topley [1845–1930]. Topley’s son-in-law, Robert Chamberlain Westover Lett [1870–1957], was travelling passenger and olonization agent for the Grand Trunk Pacific, and persuaded Topley to photograph Conan Doyle’s travels.

On June 11, Conan Doyle and his wife travelled to the town of Jasper. A special train was organized to take the Doyle party to visit the area near Mount Robson [1] [2].