ARCHIVES and SPECIAL COLLECTIONS QUEEN ELIZABETH II LIBRARY MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY, ST. JOHN'S, NL Mina Hubbard fonds COLL-241 Website: Archives and Special Collections Author: Paul Hebbard Date: 1998 Scope and Content: This fonds consists of the personal papers of Mina Hubbard. It includes personal documents (birth certificate and passports); personal correspondence; a diary kept by Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., her husband, on his fatal expedition into the Labrador interior in 1903 and diaries kept by herself and George Elson, her native guide, on their expedition to Labrador in 1905; an incomplete manuscript that appears to be a religious treatise; newspaper reviews of her book, A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador; material (review and program) pertaining to her lectures in 1936; general invitations; photographs of her expedition to Labrador, her family, and herself; and various miscellaneous items (a portrait of Mina and a locket and compass that she carried on her Labrador expedition). This collection would be of interest to researchers of the history of Labrador exploration and to those interested in the life and writings of Mina Hubbard. Furthermore, the collection would be of value to students of exploration and adventure writing as a genre in the early decades of the twentieth century. Custodial History: Anne Hart, researcher, author and former Head of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, began researching the life of Mina Hubbard in the early 1990s. During the course of this research she has discovered material which she has either copied and presented to the Archives or has been able to convince the owners of the original items to present to the Archives. The three diaries (Mina Hubbard's, Leonidas Hubbard's and George Elson's) and Mina Hubbard's locket and compass were acquired in 1994. Other items were acquired from Susan Felsberg of Mud Lake, Labrador, Donna Benson Creates of Toronto, Ontario and Joanne Matteson (granddaughter of Rachel Benson McCall, Mina's sister) of Don Mills, Ontario. Hart deposited these materials in the Archives as she acquired them on March 2, 1993, May 17, 1993, May 4, 1994, May 23, 1994, July 11, 1995, and August 16, 1995. These six acquisitions constitute the Mina Hubbard fonds. Restrictions: There are no restrictions on access to or use of the items in this fonds. All patrons should be aware that any copy of archival material is to be used solely for the purpose of research or private study. Any use of a copy for any other purpose may require the authorization of the copyright owner. It is the patron's responsibility to obtain such authorization. Biography or History: Mina Benson Hubbard Ellis was born on April 15, 1870 in Hamilton Township, Ontario on a farm near the small town of Bewdley on Rice Lake. She was the seventh of eight children born to James Benson and Jane Wood, immigrants originally from County Cavan, Ireland and Yorkshire, England, whose families emigrated to Hamilton Township in the 1840s after the area was opened for agricultural development. Although Mina's parents built up a 100-acre farm, they struggled financially as their land proved to be rather poor. However, her family persevered and were active members of their community. Mina attended a one-room school not far from her home, high school in Cobourg, and later became a schoolteacher, briefly, at Glourourim, a local school. Leaving the teaching profession, she moved to New York where she attended the Brooklyn Training School for Nurses, graduating in 1899. In May 1900, she met Leonidas Hubbard Jr., a journalist, while nursing him through typhoid fever in the Staten Island Hospital. They were married on January 31, 1901 in a small church in New York City. In August 1900, Leonidas Hubbard became a member of the staff of Outing, an American outdoor adventure magazine published in New York. This position required Hubbard to travel throughout the United States and Canada, reporting on various nature and outdoor adventure topics. While at Outing, Hubbard yearned to write about a grand outdoors adventure which would demonstrate his ability as a writer and bring fame to the Hubbard name. Inspired by recent forays into the Arctic by various world explorers, Hubbard formulated a plan to travel into the Labrador interior, which was relatively unknown outside of the native peoples who inhabited the region. In April 1902, Hubbard became assistant editor of Outing and shortly thereafter convinced his editor-in-chief, to give him leave to mount a Labrador expedition. Hubbard envisioned travelling a lengthy course through an unmapped region of Labrador that would begin at the Naskaupi River, which drained Lake Michikamau deep in the interior of the Labrador Peninsula. Reaching Michikamau, Hubbard planned to continue northwards to the George River, which drained into Ungava Bay situated in what is now northern Quebec. Hubbard convinced his close friend, Dillon Wallace, a New York lawyer, to accompany him on this expedition. Hubbard rounded out his entourage with the hiring of George Elson, a Scots-Cree native working for the Hudson Bay Company near James Bay. Elson was an experienced woodsman who would act as the expedition's guide. The Hubbard party sailed from New York on June 20, 1903. They reached North West River, their starting point in Labrador, in early July and departed from this post on July 15, late in the Labrador summer season. The wilderness inexperience of the expedition members combined with misleading information resulted in their mistaking the Susan River for the Naskaupi River shortly after their departure from North West River. The Susan led the expedition into a series of unnavigable waterways and arduous portages slowing their journey considerably. Coupled with this error was their reliance on catching wild game, which proved to be scarce, to supplement their rations. The party lost its way and never reached Michikamau, which was to be the halfway point of the intended journey. By mid-September, they were forced to turn back along a difficult trail, their clothes worn, their food supply exhausted and the Labrador winter fast approaching. By mid-October Hubbard could go no further. He was starving and exhausted. Wallace and Elson made him as comfortable as possible and left him at a camp near the junction of the Susan River and Goose Creek. Wallace went in search of a near-by cache of flour they had abandoned earlier in their journey and Elson went in search of native trappers they hoped would be at Grand Lake. Elson made it to a trapper's cabin and was left to recover by four native Labradorians who returned along his route to find Wallace collapsed and delirious in the snow, and Hubbard dead in his tent. After a lengthy recuperating period at North West River, Wallace and Elson returned to New York in May 1904 with Hubbard's body.After only three years of marriage Mina was now a widow. She negotiated with Wallace to write the story of the failed expedition; however, she was displeased with the final product. She felt that Wallace painted an unfair picture of Leonidas' responsibility in the failure of the expedition, showing him to be weak and less capable then Wallace. A rift developed between the two when Wallace refused to alter his manuscript. The resulting book, Lure of the Labrador Wild, became a best-seller in the United States and Canada. Mina's displeasure turned to hatred and she began to blame Wallace for her husband's death. In 1905 Wallace decided he would return to Labrador and complete the trek as originally envisioned by Hubbard. Mina felt that he was trying to steal credit and fame that should belong to her husband and she countered Wallace by secretly organizing her own expedition. A race was soon hyped in the press -- who would be the first to travel across the Labrador interior? Mina was able to secure the services of George Elson who had declined to join Wallace's expedition. Elson selected three other native guides to accompany him and Mina: Job Chapies, a Cree, and Joseph Iserhoff, a Russian-Cree, who were friends of Elson from the Hudson Bay area; and Gilbert Blake, a young trapper living in North West River. The rival expeditions both reached North West River in June 1905 and departed from this post within only a day of each other. Mina followed the Naskaupi River Valley while Wallace and his men opted for leaving the Valley and searching for an old Indian portage route to Seal Lake. Mina came well-equipped with food and supplies while Wallace's food supply required supplementation by wild game. As a result, Wallace's journey was considerably rougher and slower than Mina's. Wallace was forced to divide his party at Lake Michikamau to preserve supplies, sending three men back to North West River. He finally reached his destination at the Hudson Bay Company post on the George River on October 16, more than six weeks after Mina's arrival. She had won the race. Both Mina and Wallace published accounts of their Labrador journeys. Mina's account appeared in Harper's magazine and later appeared in expanded book form as A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador (1908). Wallace's account, The Long Labrador Trail (1907), was more popular with the public. However, Mina's expedition was considered more substantive by many authorities. Her maps of the Naskaupi and George River systems were accepted by the American Geographical Society and the Geographical Society of Great Britain. They proved that Seal Lake and Lake Michikamau belonged to the same drainage system and that the Naskaupi and Northwest Rivers were actually the same waterway.