Yukon who is who

Edwin Tappan Adney (1868 - 1950)

Tappan Adney was born in Athen, Ohio. In 1887, Adney and his sister were visiting Adney’s wife’s family in Woodstock, New Brunswick when he became interested in birchbark canoes. He built a canoe and wrote an article about the construction for a Harper’s Young People supplement. This work is credited with saving the art of birchbark canoe building in the east. From 1890 on, Adney built a reputation as a writer and illustrator, working for a number of magazines. He was one of the first photojournalists to participate in the Klondike gold rush. His classic book recounts his experiences in the Yukon and has been reprinted numerous times.¹⁾ Adney was working for Harper’s Weekly when he combined perceptive observations, colourful descriptions, and photos and illustrations into a narrative that continues to resonate with readers. The Klondike Stampede was published by Harper and Bros. in 1900. ²⁾ His photos of the gold rush, circa 1898, are available online.³⁾

Adney joined the Royal Canadian Engineers in 1916. He became a British citizen in 1917. He spent WWI in an engineering office at the Royal Military College of Canada where he constructed scale models of battle scenes for training purposes. Around 1925, he and Adam Sheriff Scott painted murals of early Canadian history on the lobby walls of the Hudson’s Bay Company store at Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard in Winnipeg. His photos of rural Ontario, circa 1930 are held at the McCord Museum.⁴⁾