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Special Collections: Canadian History

About This Collection

Alfred James Towle Taylor, a native of Victoria, was born in 1887 and died in 1945. He was a prominent engineer in British Columbia involved in the building of the Lion's Gate Bridge, the British Properties, and the Capilano Estates. During World War II he was an advisor to the British Ministry of Production in London and New York, and for ten years was responsible for the British Guinness family's interests in British Columbia.

Around 1945-46, Mrs. Alfred James Towle Taylor presented the library with her husband's Arctic collection. The distinctive Taylor Collection bookplate was designed at that time and inserted into each volume. The collection contains material on the discovery and exploration of the Arctic regions, the exploration of the Northwest Passage, and the search for John Franklin's missing Arctic expedition. Many first editions of the major voyages to the Arctic and the searches for the Northwest Passage are present. Maps of the Arctic region are also included. The chronological emphasis in on eighteenth and nineteenth century voyages. Current publications on early Arctic discovery and exploration are collected, but not current scientific and technical writing.

Much of the collection had been assembled with the help of Taylor’s friend, the Artic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Stefansson agreed to look out for fine copies of important works on Arctic exploration and travel, with an eye to helping Taylor build a remarkable library of rare and interesting volumes. Most items in Taylor's collection were inscribed by Stefansson himself, and most are association copies for other reasons—inscribed by authors, editors, or notable previous owners. Many include tipped-in letters and other added material. Stefansson himself visited the Library on November 18, 1947, and signed a few final volumes.

Although no catalogue was made of the collection as received, in 2012 Norman Amor, author of Beyond the Arctic Circle, attempted to create a catalogue of the collection based on materials consulted during his own research and that of some of his colleagues. The physical catalogue is available in RBSC, and is also available to download.

Featured Materials

Archival Materials

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Indexes, Catalogues, and Bibliographies in Print

Amor, Norman L. Beyond the Arctic Circle : materials on Arctic explorations and travels since 1750 in the Special Collections and University Archives Division of the University of British Columbia Library. Vancouver: UBC, 1992.

Amor, Norman L. Catalogue of the Taylor Arctic Collection, Rare Books and Special Collections, UBC Library. Vancouver: UBC Library, 2012. Download the catalogue


Subject Headings

Arctic Regions

Arctic Regions--Discovery and Exploration

Arctic Regions, Descriptions and Travel

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962


Call Numbers in the UBC Library Catalogue

G606: Arctic Exploration

G246: European Exploration, Travel, and Expansion (International)


Maps

Find maps of the Arctic region at RBSC. Other maps can be found in the Alfred Taylor fonds

Related Works

Beyond our Collections