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
- A journey from Prince of Wales's Fort in Hudson's Bay to the northern ocean, undertaken by order of the Hudson's Bay Company for the discovery of copper mines, a north west passage, &c. in the years 1769, 1770, 1771 & 1772 / by Samuel Hearne. byCall Number: FC3212.1 .H427 1795Publication Date: 1795This book is a copy of the 1795 quarto edition of Samuel Hearne’s Journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort to the Northern Ocean. It has a book plate of Samuel Wegg, Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1782—99, and the book-plate and autograph of Townsend W. Thorndike. The volume also has a brief note, complete with autograph, in the hand writing of the famous French explorer La Pérouse.
- Plan of the Dolly Varden Mines Ry., Alice Arm, Cassiar Dist. [cartographic material] byCall Number: G3512.A375P3 1920 .D6Publication Date: 1920
- Traverse of waggon road following the Kitzault River, Alice Arm, British Columbia [cartographic material] byCall Number: G3512.A375P2 1915 .D64Publication Date: 1915
- The land of the midnight sun : summer and winter journeys through Sweden, Norway, Lapland and northern Finland byCall Number: DL9 .D82Publication Date: 1881
Archival Materials
- Alfred Taylor fondsThe fonds consists of maps pertaining to the development of the Dolly Varden Mine and related projects in the Alice Arm area.
Colocating This Collection
Want to explore this collection but don't know where to start? We've created some links that can help you discover the material in this collection.
Indexes, Catalogues, and Bibliographies in Print
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--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
- Catalogue of the Sandwell collection of books and voyages in the Pacific and Arctic, undertaken principally in the 18th and 19th centuries, from French, English, Spanish and Russian sources byCall Number: G460 .A467 1991Publication Date: 1991
- Arctic ambitions : Captain Cook and the Northwest Passage byCall Number: G246.C7 A74 2015
Ice Blink by Call Number: G660 .C66 2000ISBN: 0471377902Publication Date: 2000Two of the most advanced ships of the time. 129 handpicked men. A commander who had survived three previous Arctic trips. Lost without a trace. What happened? For a century and a half, the question of what happened to the Franklin Expedition-the worst disaster in the history of polar exploration-has remained a puzzle. Now, based on original research in British Admiralty records, author Scott Cookman re-creates the full story of the ill-fated expedition and reveals a frightening new explanation for one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson by Call Number: G635.S7 H45 2009ISBN: 9781550028744Publication Date: 2009Born in Manitoba of Icelandic parents, Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962) became one of Canada's most famous and controversial Arctic explorers.
Arctic Explorers by Call Number: G634 .H47 2010ISBN: 1926613295Publication Date: 2010There is no saga in Canadian history as full of hardship, catastrophe and mystery as the search for the Northwest Passage. Since the 15th century, the ice-choked Arctic waterway has been sought and travelled by daring men seeking profit, glory or a chance to test themselves against the merciless North.- Narrative of a journey to the Polar Sea in the years 1819-20-21-22 byCall Number: FC3961 .F724 2000Publication Date: 2000
Beyond our Collections
- Arctic Institute of North America Photographic ArchivesThe Arctic Institute’s photographic collection consists of over 4000 photographs dating from the late 1800s through the 1900s. Consisting mostly of black and white prints, but also some negatives and slides, the bulk of the collection dates to the first half of the 20th century. The photos were taken on a variety of expeditions and patrols by scientists, mountaineers, police and military patrols, and other Arctic explorers.
- Glenbow Archives Franklin Expedition and Arctic Exploration CollectionThe collection consists of diaries, letters, memoirs, reports, and other records created by these individuals involved in searches for the missing Franklin Expedition as well as other explorers who were contemporaries of Franklin: Sir Edward Belcher, George Brown, E.N. Kendall, W.H. Hooper, Sir Francis McClintock, Sir Erasmus Ommanney, Sir William Edward Parry, Robert Peary, John Rae, Sir John Richardson, Sir John Ross, Sir Edward Sabine, R.C. Scott, and the Canadian Department of National Defence.
- Library and Archives Canada - The Arctic and MorePart of the Pathfinders and Passageways: The Exploration of Canada collection, this page gives a detailed history of Arctic exploration in Canada, complete with images and reference to important maps.
- McCord Museum Arctic Exploration in the 19th and 20th Centuries CollectionThis selection of approximately 225 images bears witness to the travels of several Arctic explorers. John Franklin, Captain George Back, Sir John Ross and David Walker are among those who set out in the 19th century to find the passageway to the Orient, the famous Northwest Passage. In the 20th century, Hugh A. Peck and George E. Mack also visited the Great North, photographing scenes and landscapes everywhere they went.
- McCord Museum Exploration in the Canadian Arctic Web TourDivided into five major themes and five time periods, these thematic tours may be accessed three different ways, by: Web tours (documented images, in HTML), movie clips (QuickTime version) and movie clips (Flash version).
- The Stefansson Collection on Polar ExplorationFounded as the private research collection of the Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879-1962), the Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration is an exceptionally rich body of material for research on the history of both the Antarctic and the Arctic. For the Antarctic regions, the bulk of the collection is concerned with events prior to World War II. For the Arctic regions, the bulk of the collection is concerned with events prior to 1930. The collection has four main parts: printed materials, manuscripts, photographs, and vertical files. A selection of the photographs have been digitized.
- University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Polar Explorations Digital CollectionThe American Geographical Society Library collections includes a wealth of photographs documenting the discovery and exploration of the polar regions. Examples of early works include prints of Greenland taken during the Isaac Israel Hayes Arctic explorations of 1860-61 and 1869 and stereoscopic slides from the Arctic expedition of Count Johann (Hans) Nepomuk Wilczek aboard the SS Isbjörn in 1872. Images in the form of prints, glass plate negatives and lantern slides document the aero-navigation feats of Roald Amundsen, Lincoln Ellsworth, Umberto Nobile, Richard Byrd and Sir Hubert Wilkins. Also included are large collections of prints from the eight Arctic expeditions of Louise Arner Boyd and from the Grenfell-Forbes expedition to northern Labrador to name a few.