Landscaping a Sovereign North: Photography and the Discourse of North in the Publications of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918 By Jennifer Anne Louise Blunt, B.A., University of Toronto A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Canadian Art History Carleton University OTTAWA, Ontario 27 August 2007 © 2007, Jennifer Anne Louise Blunt Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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ABSTRACT The Canadian Arctic Expedition (1913-1918), led by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, was sponsored by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Canadian Department of the Naval Service to explore and document the north western Canadian Arctic and Arctic Archipelago. Photography was employed by expedition members as a data-collecting mechanism and to give visual form to the journey itself. Over four hundred of these photographs were reproduced in the expedition’s publications: the fourteen volumes of government reports, Stefansson’s popular exploration narrative The Friendly Arctic (1921) and Diamond Jenness’s People o f the Twilight (1928). Through photography, I contend, these publications construct a landscape of North as terra nullius (empty land) that is visible as an extension of Canadian governmental sovereignty in the region. By looking to North as discourse, this thesis questions the role of the visual in representing the north as region, experience, or idea in Canadian visual culture. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe the completion of this project to the remarkable patience and support of Dr. Carol Payne, and am especially grateful for her encouragement when I could only offer a fragmented thought or blank page. I am also indebted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, for their gracious and continual consideration. I would also like to extend my appreciation to the staff at the Canadian Museum of Civilization Photographic Archives and Library and Archives Canada; Martin Legault at the Natural Resources Canada Library; Sarah Hartwell of the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College; and Laura Kissel at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University; each of whom brought enthusiasm to this project and their assistance made for easy research. The writing of this thesis was a personal journey, a rite of passage, nurtured by the kindness and unwavering support of many: Nicole Bennett, Charlotte Garay, Sarah Gibson, and Jessie Stewart, with their compassion and insight, as well as Ruby Southward whose strength and independent spirit is in every word. Lastly, I have to thank my two closest friends: my father, Leslie Blunt, for his unfailing support and whose respect for all things historical is my inspiration; and my mother, Joyce, perpetually by my side, whose love and determination brought me home again. This thesis is dedicated to Annie and Agnes Louise Southward, two exceptionally strong women whose energy, self-reliance, and wisdom shape each and every day. iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS THESIS ACCEPTANCE ii ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF TABLES AND APPENDICES vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xii INTRODUCTION Visualizing North 1 CHAPTER 1. Containing North: Photography and the Publications of the CAE 26 CHAPTER 2. Approaches to the Study of Canadian Nordicity 50 CHAPTER 3. Constructing the CAE as Authority: Terra Nullius and Canadian Arctic Sovereignty 86 CHAPTER 4. Landscaping a Sovereign North 108 CONCLUSION “To Believe in the North”: Contemporary Attitudes to the North and the Legacy o f the CAE 13 3 APPENDIX A 140 TABLE 1 143 TABLE 2 164 TABLE 3 173 TABLE 4 176 ILLUSTRATIONS 178 BIBLIOGRAPHY 204 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF TABLES AND APPENDICES APPENDIX A Reports of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18 TABLE 1 CAE Fieldwork Photographs Published in Canadian Arctic Expedition Reports TABLE 2 CAE Fieldwork Photographs by George Hubert Wilkins Published in The Friendly Arctic by Vilhjalmur Stefansson TABLE 3 Non-CAE Fieldwork Photographs Published in Canadian Arctic Expedition Reports and in Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s The Friendly Arctic TABLE 4 CAE Fieldwork Photographs Published in People o f the Twilight by Diamond Jenness Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Intro. 1 “A Tent Ring/Broken Summer Ice Along the Coast.” Source: Vilhjalmur Stefansson, The Friendly Arctic: The Story o f Five Years in Polar Regions, rev. ed. (1921; repr., New York: Macmillan, 1943), facing p. 258. Photo Credits: Copper Inuit stone ‘blind’ at Bernard Harbour, Northwest Territories (Nunavut), 1916 Courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization, George H Wilkins, 51223; Pack ice near Bernard Harbour, Northwest Territories (Nunavut), 1915 Courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization, George H Wilkins, 51096. Figure Intro.2 Map by Geological Survey of Canada showing the region traversed by the Canadian Arctic Expedition. Source: James M. Macoun and Theo Holm, Botany: Vascular Plants, Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, vol. 5, part A (Ottawa: Ac land, 1921), page 25a. Credit: Photos, drawings, maps, correspondence, related to report of the “Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1918” Courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archives, IV-X-36M, B412, file 1-11. Figure Intro.3 “Eskimo Landmarks.” Source: Diamond Jenness, Life o f the Copper Eskimos, Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18, vol. 12, part A (Ottawa: Ac land, 1922), plate 6. Photo Credits: Rock used to frighten caribou near Bernard Harbour, Northwest Territories (Nunavut), 1915 Courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization, George H Wilkins, 50978; Copper Inuit stone blind at Bernard Harbour, Northwest Territories (Nunavut), 1916 Courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization, George H Wilkins, 51222; Two stones near Lake Kogluktuaryuk, Northwest Territories (Nunavut), 1916 Courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization, Diamond Jenness, 37075. Figure Intro.4 Drawing of Caribou Drive by Ikpakhuak. Source: Diamond Jenness, Life of the Copper Eskimos, Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18, vol. 12, part A (Ottawa: Acland, 1922), 151. Credit: Photos, drawings, maps, correspondence, related to report of the “Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1918” Courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization, Archives, IV-X-36M, B412, file 1-11. Figure 1.1 Canadian Arctic Expedition report cover, showing illustration by Claude E. Johnston. Source: Jennifer Blunt. Figure 1.2 Frontispiece and title page of The Friendly Arctic by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Source: Vilhjalmur Stefansson, The Friendly Arctic: The Story o f Five Years in Polar Regions (New York: Macmillan, 1921). Photo Credit: Vilhjalmur Stefansson pulling a dead seal near Martin Point, Alaska, 1914 Courtesy Canadian Museum of Civilization, George H Wilkins, 50776. vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 1.3 Frontispiece of Life of the Copper Eskimos by Diamond Jenness. Source: Diamond Jenness, Life of the Copper Eskimos, Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-18, vol. 12, part