The Peter and Catharine Whyte Foundation for the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Published purpose

In this project, the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (WMCR) will digitize 168 scrapbooks from 48 fonds, with over 6,000 pages that represent the Canadian Rocky Mountain community from upper and middle-income families between the 1800s and the 1970s. Scrapbooks are a form of self-publication available to people of varying economic status, as long as they have paper, scissors, and glue. This under-used historical resource will be made accessible to community members and researchers through the WMCR’s online database. Content will include pioneer life in Banff National Park; travels on the Canadian Pacific Railway; political events; scientific and anthropological studies; and family life and events in various communities in and around the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The organization will digitize and describe each scrapbook and preventive preservation will be carried out. Digital scans will serve as a surrogate for the scrapbooks, to increase access and preserve the fragile scrapbooks in the WMCR’s collection.