William and Margaret McCalla: The 1938 Trip Through the Northwest United States

Abstract

William (Will) Copeland McCalla was born in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada in 1872. Margaret Adam Ratcliffe was born in the same place in 1880. They married in 1902. He was a prosperous market gardener in the St. Catharines area until selling the farm in the winter of 1912-13 and taking up residence in Edmonton, Alberta. From an early age Will was interested in plants, flowers and photography. In 1899, for example, he made a collecting and photography trip to Banff, with free transportation provided by the CPR in exchange for photographs. In 1920 he published an illustrated book, Wild Flowers of Western Canada (Toronto: Mussen Book Co.) which was distributed to all public schools in Alberta. In 1925 he took up a teaching position at the Calgary Normal School where he remained until his retirement in 1938. Each summer, and often throughout the year, he and Margaret would take collecting and photography trips for wildflowers. Both kept journals of their trips: Will a photographic record and a specimen record of his collecting, with Margaret keeping the daily log. What follows is a compilation of their trip in 1938 to the Northwestern United States focussing on the National Parks of the area. The compilation combines Will’s photographic record and Margaret’s daily log1. In this compilation some of the photographs and specimens collected are shown, along with an indication of where they may be found today. Especially featured are the coloured hand painted lantern slides that were produced from some of the black and white photographs taken.