Smithsonian Institution Archives presents the panoramic photographs of Charles D. Walcott. These breathtaking images were taken in the Canadian Rockies, near British Columbia, Canada, in the early part of the 20th century and carry both scientific and aesthetic value.

Charles Doolittle Walcott, fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1907 to 1927, was a paleontologist and the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey at the time of his appointment. With a personal focus on North American Cambrian fossils, he traveled widely in the United States and Canada in support of his research. During 1909, while in the Canadian Rockies, Dr. Walcott discovered what has come to be known as the Burgess Shale. Neither Walcott nor the scientific community as a whole realized the importance of this discovery at the time, but the Burgess Shale came to be recognized as one of the most important geologic findings of the 20th century. Full article...

Photographing the Rockies