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Grey Owl collection. – 1924-[193?]. – 5 photographs.

Grey Owl was born Archibald Stansfeld Belaney in 1888 in Hastings, England. He moved to Canada in 1906 and became a guide and trapper in Northern Ontario. It was under the influence of his lover, Anahareo, that Grey Owl became a nature conservationist, adopting the persona of an Indian. He also became an author of books about the north and Ojibwa culture. Near the end of his life he undertook lecture tours of Britain and the United States. Grey Owl died in Prince Albert, Sask., in 1938.

The collection consists of five b&w photographs. The descriptions are written on the verso of the photographs by an unknown person. Four of the five photographs are believed to be unpublished. A brief finding aid follows:

Anahareo at Wabikon Summer Camp, Lake Temagami, 1924 (published)

Anahareo at Wabikon Camp, Lake Temagami, 1925, with [female] friend who was a champion canoeist

Anahareo [Gertrude Barnard], age 20, in the summer after she met Grey Owl, 1925

Grey Owl, Chief Yellowrobe, The Silent Enemy film at Temagami year 192?

Grey Owl, verso is blank

The two photographs of Grey Owl show him dressed in buckskins with an Indian headdress similar to the one he is wearing in a photograph taken in 1937 in Donald B. Smith, From the Land of Shadows, p.197. Smith includes a bibliography of Grey Owl's films; there is no mention of Silent Enemy.

Researchers may also wish to consult the Macmillan Canada fonds which contains correspondence, additional photographs and other materials and the David Paul Gagan fonds which contains additional photographs for use in Canada: an Historical Magazine.

Title based on the content of collection.
The collection (22-2000) was purchased from Alphabet Bookshop, Port Colborne, Ont.
Finding aid available at the collection level in hard copy and electronically.
There are no access restrictions.
No further accruals are expected.

Contact: archives@mcmaster.ca
Last Reviewed: May 22, 2003
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