Geraldine Moodie, nee Fitzgibbon (1854-1945)
Geraldine Fitzgibbons was born in Toronto to parents Agnes Dunbar Moodie and Charles Thomas Fitzgibbon. Her grandfather was a hero of the War of 1812 and her maternal grandmother was the writer Susanna Strickland Moodie. Geraldine lost her father at an early age and was greatly influenced by her mother’s family. She was educated in Ottawa and travelled to England in 1877 where she married a distant relative John Douglas Moodie. The Moodies returned to Canada in 1879 with their first-born child and settled on a homestead north of Brandon, Manitoba. Geraldine painted water colours of wildflowers and exhibited her and her mother’s art at an exhibition in London. The homestead failed and the Moodies returned to Ottawa where John received a commission with the North-West Mounted Police in 1885.1)
The Moodies began their life of postings in various and remote areas of Canada. In 1895, Geraldine established a photographic studio in Battleford. Her photographs were copyrighted after that and some are historically important. In 1896, the Moodies moved to the Cypress Hills at Maple Creek and she opened a new studio. The Medicine Hat News reported that she was starting a branch studio in Medicine Hat. In 1897, Inspector Moodie was ordered to explore an overland route between Edmonton and the Yukon and Geraldine remained behind in Maple Creek with her five children.2)
On his return, Moodie was confident of a posting in the Yukon and temporarily moved the family to Lakefield, Ontario. However, Moodie was ordered to Cardston, Alberta and then served in South Africa while Geraldine remained in Ontario. In 1902, Moodie was placed in charge of the Moosomin district and Geraldine joined him.3) In 1903, John was promoted to Superintendent of the North-West Mounted Police and assigned the coast and islands of Hudson Bay and the eastern Arctic. Both Moodies photographed the Inuvialuit in 1904/05 at Fullerton, on Southampton Island in the Arctic. Geraldine also documented the Mounted Police and their barracks, the steamer Arctic and the surrounding area.4)
In 1912, J.D. Moodie was sent to Dawson for three years. The only signed copy of a Geraldine Moodie photograph from Dawson is a portrait of Martha Munger Black and another woman dressed in Inuvialuit clothing. An album with Dawson City captions exists, but no photographs have been found.5)
In March 2013 a stamp depicting Moodie's photograph, Koo-tuck-tuck, was issued by Canada Post in their Canadian Photography series. The image shows a traditionally dressed Inuvialuit woman from Norway House, Keewating District, NWT.