William James Topley (13 February 1845 – 16 November 1930) was a Canadian photographer based in Ottawa, Ontario. He was the best known of Ottawa’s nineteenth-century photographers and the most socially prominent one.

Topley was noted for his portraiture of Canadian politicians and was a business partner of William Notman, having taken over Notman’s Ottawa studio in 1872. A large number of photographs by Topley are now in the collection of Library and Archives Canada, including approximately 150,000 glass plates negatives and a set of 66 index albums covering the entire history of his Ottawa studios from 1868 until 1923 [1].

Son of William Pittman Lett [1819–1892] of County Wexford, Ireland, and Maria Hinton [ca. 1828–1881] of Carleton, Upper Canada. In 1912 R. C. W. Lett married Helena Sarah DeCourcy Topley, daughter of photographer William James Topley [1845–1930] of Ottawa, who travelled with the 1914 Arthur Conan Dolye trip to Jasper

Brother of Rebecca Lett, Andrew John Lett, William Pittman Lett II, Anna Elizabeth Lett, Frederick Piercy Austin Lett, Norman Harold Hinton Lett and Maria Dulcibella Lett.
[1].

———— 115 [2]
Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot [1880–1924]
The new garden of Canada. By pack-horse and canoe through undeveloped new British Columbia. London: Cassell, 1911

1910:

p. vii
I was one of a party of six which set out from the western fringe of civilisation in Alberta to make the “North-West Passage” by land, threading 1,200 miles of wonderful, practically unknown country-the interior of New Caledonia, or, as it is now officially called, New British Columbia. The party consisted of Harry R. Charlton, Montreal; Robert C. W. Lett, Winnipeg; H. D. Lowry, Washington, U.S.A.; G. Horne Russell, Montreal; a photographer, and myself. The first and third left the party at Tête Jaune Cache to return. The object of my investigations was to form some notion of the economic and scenic value of the country traversed.

Lett, who can manage a dug-out as well as any Indian

shot a bear

p 129
Two legs of bear were lying in the prow, and we were pulling along gaily in the misty morning, when we heard a furious screech over our heads. Looking up, there was a large bald-headed eagle poised about two hundred feet above, and evidently attracted by the sight of the fresh meat. He swooped down a bit, looking a trifle aggressive, and Lett whipped out his Browning automatic and let drive seven shots in rapid succession

p. 209
Lett grabbed up his line and a stick to form an im- promptu rod, ours having been left behind on the Little Smoky River. The dug-out was soon pulling towards the centre of the lake with the troll out. Presently we saw a vicious tug, and an instant later there was a bright flash in the air as the fish made a leap of about ten feet. The fighting and plunging went on for about ten minutes, and then the dug-out came in with a sharp shoot with another quivering specimen lying in the bottom. When weighed it tipped the beam at 8| lb. , and they were two as fine specimens of the trout family as one could desire to land. Our American visitor said they were “fair devils ” when hooked, and would often jump clean over the canoe, while their rushes made the pike’s movements a mere tortoise crawl in comparison. Lett confessed that his catch had given him a lively five minutes, accustomed though he was to all classes of fish found in Canadian river waters.

a competent hunter and fisherman and boatsman

———- 131 [3]

Wheeler, Arthur Oliver [1860-1945 ]. “The Alpine Club of Canada’s expedition to Jasper Park, Yellowhead Pass and Mount Robson region, 1911.” Canadian Alpine Journal, Vol. 4 (1912):9-80

We left Edmonton for the West by the Grand Trunk Pacific train on the 1st July. Attached to the train was the private car of W. P. Hinton, General Passenger Agent. With him were H. R. Charlton, General Advertising Agent, and R. C. W. Lett, Travelling Passenger and Colonization Agent.

——–562 [4]

Talbot, Frederick Arthur Ambrose [1880–1924]. Making Good in Canada. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1912

one of a series of “books for colonists”

The material in the book is undated, other than it is before 1912.

This is the true spirit in which the new arrival must view and attack things Canadian. No calling is too humble ; no occupation should be despised.

Among the occupations: packing, roadbuilding, trapping, wood cutting, game and fre wardens, prospecting, farmingm lumbering, logging, and timber cruising.

let appear in chapter 4, cutting trails and building roads
chapter 5, trapping
chapter 9, game and fire wardens.

p 122
One of the members of our party on this occasion, Mr. Robert C. W. Lett, a few years before had thrown in his lot with these lonely patrollers, for the purposes of restoring his health. The scene of his activity was in Algonquin Park, some way up in the Highlands of Ontario, and he painted me some very powerful pictures of the life of this official under all varying conditions.…

During the summer, life as a game-warden in such a park is enviable to those compelled to drudge in the suffocating and broiling city, because the men spend the whole of their time in the open air, which, bearing in mind the situation and altitude of the reserve, is a most invigorating tonic.

chapter 14, prospecting for minerals
p. 186
A graphic and intimate impression of the adventurous life of the mineral prospector was conveyed to me one night round the blazing camp fire, by my companion on the trail, Robert C. W. Lett. When he broke away from the lonely calling of game-warden in Algonquin Park, he embarked upon a prospecting expedition. Two experienced companions joined him in this pursuit of fortune, the projected field for their labours being one of the innermost recesses of Ontario, which has since gained fame as the Gowganda country.

Shack built on Wapoose River by Mr. Lett’s prospecting party with eleven nails.

————-165 [5]

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. The Canadian Rockies. Yellowhead Pass Route. Winnipeg: Issued by the General Passenger Department, G.T.P. Railway, 1913
165

R.C.W. Lett, Tourist and Colonization Agent, GTP, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Ealry this year a Bill was passed, setting aside a large area in the Yellowhead Pass district, which will be known as Mount Robson Park. The central feature of this Park will be the famous Mount Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, and it is the itnention of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Company to build a large up-to-date hotel in the park, from which one of the best views of the mountain will be obtained.

——–260 walcott [6]

With our party in 1912 we had Mr. Harry H. Blagden, who accompanied the expedition in 1911; also Mr. R. C. W. Lett, of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, who took many fine photographs the first two weeks of the trip; Sidney S. Walcott, Closson Otto, Dr. I. F. Burgin, and Arthur Brown, all of whom were qualified by experience and physique to overcome the physical obstacles and hardships of the trip.

—-307 Wheeler [7]

The following were in attendance at the Robson Camp:
among the honorary members R. C. W. Lett, GTP Ry,Winnipeg.

———669 doyle [8]

In 1914, R.C.W. held a prominent position with the Grand Trunk Railway and persuaded his father-in-law, the noted Ottawa photographer William James Topley, to photograph Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on his rail trip through Western Canada in June of that year.

——– 920 – dcb topley [9]

Topley and his wife, who died in 1927, spent much of their last years in Edmonton with their daughter, Helena Sarah, and son-in-law, Robert C. W. Lett, an employee of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway who had probably been influential in the naming of Topley, a community on the GTP line in northern British Columbia.

Henry John Moberly [1835–1931]

b. 1835 — Penetanguishene, Ontario
d. 1931 — Duck Lake, Saskatchewan

Hector was appointed surgeon and geologist to the Palliser expedition[ 1857-1860] and was sent to explore the western parts of British North America. Hector made many important observations regarding the geology and ethnology of the Canadian West and Rocky Mountains, including an exploration along the Athabasca River from Fort Edmonton to Athabasca Pass in 1859

He returned by Rocky Mountain House and thence back to Edmonton along the route already familiar to him, arriving just in time for the Christmas and New Year festivities, which included a most successful ball given by Mrs. Christie and Palliser.

At once, after this had gone, Hector went away again with dog-sleds to the northwest. He followed the old Company trail to Fort Assiniboine on the Athabasca River, up that river to Jasper House, on past the mouth of the Miette River, which led to the Yellowhead Pass across the mountains to the Fraser, and on, again, past the mouth of the Whirlpool River. He had hoped to go up this river to the Athabasca Pass, which the Expedition’s instructions had set as the northerly limit of the country to be explored. His guide went lame, so he was forced to content himself with studying the pass from a high vantage-point, from which he thought he could easily identify Mounts Hooker and Brown, on either side of it [1].

Dr. Hector was a tireless worker. His capacity for endurance in any kind of weather was the talk of men around camp. He had four horses to his string and they were not too many for his demands. There was no let up in his persistence, as day after day, all except Sunday, he continued his unending labours to cover as wide a range of territory as possible [2]

He was appointed geologist to the provincial government of Otago, New Zealand, in 1861 and director of the Geological Survey of New Zealand from 1865-1903. He returned to Canada in 1904 to visit some of his previous exploration grounds.

Anderson was educated in England and joined the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1831 as an apprentice clerk. After a year of service at Lachine, he was assigned to various HBC posts throughout the northwest, including Fort Vancouver, Fort McLoughlin, Fraser Lake, Fort George, Fort Nisqually, Fort Alexandria, and Fort Colvile.

In 1832 the HBC assigned Anderson to the Columbia fur trade district. Accompanying the Columbia express brigade, Anderson crossed the Athabasca Pass in October.

He was promoted to chief trader in 1846, and would have been made chief factor had he been willing to accept a post in New Caledonia. Between 1846 and 1847, in response to the Oregon boundary issue, Anderson led three exploring expeditions in an attempt to find a route, from the HBC post at Kamloops to the HBC post Fort Langley, which would fall entirely within British territory.

He retired from the Company in 1854, and settled with his wife Eliza Birnie, whom he married in 1837, in Cathlamet, Washington. They eventually had 13 children. In 1858 Anderson was persuaded by James Douglas [1803–1877], governor of Vancouver Island and of the crown colony of British Columbia, to accept the position of postmaster of Victoria; he later served briefly as collector of customs, and also had various business interests in Victoria. In 1876 he was appointed as both Dominion inspector of fisheries and the federal representative on the Dominion-Provincial Joint Commission on Indian Land in British Columbia. His appointment to this commission ended in 1878. Anderson was considered scholarly, and wrote several reports, articles and manuscripts about the history of the northwest coast. [1, 2, 3]

Edward Worrell Jarvis [1846–1894]

Harmon’s map interior of North America 1820 shows the following Indian distribution:

East of the Rocky Mountains:
Beaver Indians — around the Peace River from headwaters to Fort Chipewyan
Cree or Knisteneaux Indians — around the Saskatchewan River drainage
Sursee Indians — around headwaters of the Athabasca River

West of the Rockies:
Sicanny Indians — north of Fraser River
Carrier (Dakelh) or Tacully Indians — around upper Fraser River

Rupert’s Land (French: Terre de Rupert), or Prince Rupert’s Land (French: Terre du Prince Rupert), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin. The right to “sole trade and commerce” over Rupert’s Land was granted to Hudson’s Bay Company, based at York Factory, effectively giving that company a commercial monopoly over the area. The territory operated for 200 years from 1670 to 1870. Its namesake was Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who was a nephew of King Charles I and the first governor of HBC.

In December 1821, the HBC monopoly was extended from Rupert’s Land to the Pacific coast.

Rupert’s Land included the drainage of the Saskatchewan River.

The Rupert’s Land Act 1868, which was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, authorized the sale of Rupert’s Land to Canada with the understanding that it included the whole of the lands and territories held or claimed to be held by the Hudson’s Bay Company

The Carrier or Dakelh are the indigenous people of a large portion of the Central Interior of British Columbia, belonging to the Northern Athabascan or Dene group of First Nations.

Among the Carriers, the widow of a deceased warrior used to pick up from among the ashes of the funeral pyre the few charred bones which would escape the ravages of fire and carry them on her back in a leathern satchel—hence the name of the tribe—until the co-clansmen of the deceased had amassed a sufficient quantity of eatables and dressed skins to be publicly distributed among people of different clans, in the course of an ostentatious ceremony called “potlatch,” a ceremony which prevailed among all but the Sekanais and the Eastern Nahanais tribes.

— Morice 1904, p. 6 [1]

The Carrier lived directly north of the Chilcotin, in the valleys of the upper Fraser, Blackwater, Nechako, and Bulkley rivers, and around Stuart and Babine lakes up to the borders of Bear lake. Their name (English, Carrier; French, Porteur, said to be a translation of the term applied to them by their eastern neighbours, the Sekani) refers to their peculiar custom of compelling widows to carry on their backs the charred bones of their dead husbands. They had no common name for themselves, only names for the independent sub-tribes into which they were divided. In the nineteenth century, however, they adopted for themselves the obscure title Takulli, bestowed on them apparently by Europeans.

— Jenness 1932 [2]

Dakelh territories include along Fraser River from south of Quesnel upstream to the Yellowhead Pass, as well as the upper North Thompson and Canoe River valleys.

The traditional Dakelh way of life is based on a seasonal round, with the greatest activity in the summer when berries are gathered and fish caught and preserved. The mainstay of the economy is centered on harvesting activities within each family keyoh (territory, village, trapline) under the leadership of a hereditary chief, known as a Keyoh holder or keyoh-whudachun. Fish, especially the several varieties of salmon, are smoked and stored for the winter in large numbers. Hunting and trapping of deer, caribou, moose, elk, black bear, beaver, and rabbit provided meat, fur for clothing, and bone for tools. Other fur-bearing animals are trapped to some extent, but until the advent of the fur trade, such trapping is a minor activity.

The Dakelh engaged in extensive trade with the coast along trails known as “grease trails”. The items exported consisted primarily of hides, dried meat, and mats of dried berries. Imports consisted of various marine products, the most important of which was “grease”, the oil extracted from eulachons (also known as “candlefish”) by allowing them to rot, adding boiling water, and skimming off the oil. This oil is extremely nutritious and, unlike many other fats, contains desirable fatty acids. [3]

The band located near Prince George is the Lheidli T’enneh Band, [4] historically known as the Fort George Indian Band. The Lheidli T’enneh did not have permanent settlements in what is modern day Prince George until the arrival of the Hudson’s Bay Company post Fort George. Temporary and seasonal settlements were used across the traditional territory and archeological evidence of fishing camps along the Nechako and Fraser rivers.