Laid a foundation…
Jimmy Simpson
Tourist Sportsman https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2612596&seq=462&q1=%22james+simpson%22
Jimmy Simpson (born Justin James McCarthy Simpson, 1877–1972) was one of the most celebrated guides and outfitters in the history of the Canadian Rockies, based out of Banff and Bow Lake, Alberta. Born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, he was sent to Canada by his family in 1896 and worked briefly at Lake Louise for the Canadian Pacific Railway before returning to the Rockies to work the trails and trap. By the early 1900s, he had become a successful guide and outfitter, with clients including the wildlife artist Carl Rungius and the Alpine Club of Canada. He learned much of the guiding and outfitting trade from Bill Peyto, and in 1902, while working for Peyto, was given charge of leading James Outram’s climbing expedition into the headwaters of the North Saskatchewan River and the Columbia Icefield. Starting in 1920 he began building Num-Ti-Jah Lodge at Bow Lake as a base for hunting and climbing parties.
On the family side, Simpson married Williamina “Billie” Ross Reid in 1916, and the couple had three children. Their daughter Margaret arrived the following year, in 1917. Billie ran the lodge’s day-to-day operations, and in 1945 the business passed to their son, Jimmy Simpson Jr. Daughters Margaret and Mary Simpson (Hallock) both became internationally known figure skaters. Jimmy kept guiding hunting parties into the 1940s and didn’t fully hand off the business until after World War II, even working as camp cook on trips well into his seventies. He died in 1972 at age 95. Jimmy Simpson: Legend of the Rockies by E.J. Hart
define hunter sportsman
Hunting Guide Business
Letters from Henry Auchincloss Colgate, of the Colgate toothpaste company, a Coca-Cola executive, likely the company president, Samuel Candler Dobbs, and a Johnson & Johnson executive, likely the company president, James Wood Johnson.
Found letters that informed me that Simpson was a member of the Camp-Fire Club, an American outdoor and conservation organization founded by William T. Hornaday, the director of the New York Zoological Park. McAleenan, Brooks, Frothingham(?), and several others in their social circle were also members. There was correspondence between Simpson and HS Watson of Field and Stream magazine regarding articles Simpson had written and intended to write for them. Notably, Field and Stream was the “organ” of the Camp-Fire Club, meaning it was the press outlet for club news, member-authored articles, and the like.
[Conservation in Field and Stream]
Naturalist and Scientific Community
Letters from William T. Hornaday, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, and C. Hart Merriam
revealed Simpson’s connection to the emerging and intersecting networks of North American naturalists, scientists, and conservationists, and how they connected to hunter-sportsmen culture. , as their taxidermied trophies and photographs would at times become part of naturalist and… Who are these people?
It helped me understand the network within the hunter-sportsman world and how it was interconnected with the world of scientific collecting and conservationism. This would become clearer as my research continued, especially when exploring archival materials at the Wildlife Conservation Society (formerly the New York Zoological Society) and the Smithsonian Archives.
Sportsman-Naturalist
The Hunting Party
Letter from Books, McAleenan, Frothingham, with subjects ranging from the arrangement of hunting trips to the sharing of
deciphering handwriting
McAleenan…
letter
Harlow Brooks
In his letter to Simpson, Brooks informs Simpson that he and his hunting party, McAleenan, Murgatroyd, and Elwyn Sanborn, will be traveling to Banff for a hunting trip. There are a number of significant references, including to wildlife artist Carl Rungius, to photographs taken on their hunting trip, and to what he refers to as “lads from Wyoming,” likely Joe Magil and Joe Jones, and possibly others they know from their hunting excursions there.
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Dr. Frank Canfield Hollister, a prominent New York physician, writes to Jimmy about a hunting trip he will be taking to Banff, accompanied by his sixteen-year-old daughter, Gloria Hollister, who, if you recall, became a renowned explorer, scientist, and conservationist, with whom Ruth, Brook’s daughter, traveled to British Guiana with her on a scientific expedition.
Highlights that women were included…
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McAleenan’s Death
Text……………………………………………………………………………
CFC – Joe Jones, maybe just reference Ambrose letter
Frothingham Stony Indian letter
1st letter – Brooks, campfire dinners, Mentions Roosevelt, CFC, Joe McAllenan – “He and the bunch are thinking of going to Alaska”, note the date is the year McAleenan died
Hunting Party Photography
Photography quotes…
Will you do me the kindness to either send or bring with you when you come to New York, all those photographic films which were in Starr’s hands at one time, from which was made that album of enlarged prints which Joe sent you. The reason for my request is that I may bring out a volume of the various stories I have written of my hunting trips some time next year and I want the most striking illustrations that Brazeau country affords, together with some of your goat and sheep pictures. bf course, I have a lot of my own and also complete access to those Joe has but, at the same time, I will feel better if I have everything that may contribute to the most thorough illustration of the book. (Frothingham Dec 1918 MG_9725.JPG)
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