From Titkana Peak Overlooking Hunga Glacier

Summary

Charles Doolittle Walcott's panoramic image is from the southwest slope of Titkana Peak, overlooking Hunga Glacier, Mount Robson Park, British Columbia (now Alberta), Canada. This view begins on the left at Snowbird Pass, and passes to the right by Phillips Mountain and Chushina Glacier below, next Lynx Mountain in the distance and in the center the snow-capped Mount Resplendent (11,173 ft.). Robson Peak (13,068 ft.) is partially shrounded in mist. Iyatunga (9,000 ft.) rises as a black mass above Hunga Glacier, and to the right across Robson PassMcLaurin Mountain with Mumm Peak (9,740 ft.) at the extreme right. Walcott used a Cirkut Outfit Camera to capture the image.

Subject

Mount Robson Park (B.C.)

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850-1927), fourth Secretary of the Smithsonian (1907-1927), was a paleontologist whose research focused on North American Cambrian fossils. He conducted field work in the United States and Canada, and, in 1909, while in the Canadian Rockies near Field, British Columbia, discovered what has come to be known as the Burgess Shale. The shale contained fossils that provided the foundation for study of the Cambrian Period in Western North America. Neither Walcott nor the scientific community realized the importance of this discovery, but the Burgess Shale came to be recognized as one of the most important geologic findings of the 20th century. Walcott is equally well-known for his method of photographing topographies for scientific documentary purposes, producing stunning images of these majestic landscapes.

Contained within

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7004, Charles D. Walcott Papers

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1913

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

• Mountains
• Scientific expeditions
• Landscapes
• Photography, Panoramic
• Burgess Shale (B.C.)
• National parks and reserves
• Paleontology
• Provincial parks and reserves
• Canada

Place

• Mount Resplendent (Alta.)
• Canadian Rockies (B.C. and Alta.)
• Canada
• Rocky Mountains
• McLaurin Mountain (Alta.)
• Alberta
• Lynx Mountain (Alta.)
• Hunga Glacier (Alta.)
• British Columbia
• Phillips Mountain (Alta.)

Form/Genre

• Photographic print
• Landscape
• Panoramic photographs

ID Number

Walcott 985

Physical description

Number of Images: 1; Color: Black and white; Size: Neg. 10" film; Type of Image: Landscape; Panoramic photographs; Medium: Photographic print

Full Record

View Full Record