Search Results - Research Collections - Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

Letters to Mother [February - May 1934]

https://archives.whyte.org/en/permalink/descriptions7442

Part Of: Peter and Catharine Whyte fonds

Scope & Content: File pertains to 22 hand-written letters written by Catharine Robb Whyte to her mother, Edith Morse Robb from February 1 to May 18, 1934. Topics include leaving Honolulu for Tokyo via the Canadian Pacific Steamer "Empress of Japan" in late March, life aboard ship, comments and descriptions of the s…

Date Range: 1934

Reference Code: M36 / I / A / 2b / i / 94

Description Level: 5 / File

GMD: Postcard; Private record

1 image 1 Electronic Resource

Part Of: Peter and Catharine Whyte fonds

Description Level: 5 / File

Fonds Number: M36 / V683 / S37

Series: I.A.2. Catharine Robb Whyte papers / photographs

Sous-Fonds: M36

Accession Number: .

Reference Code: M36 / I / A / 2b / i / 94

GMD: Postcard; Private record

Date Range: 1934

Physical Description: 2.3 cm of textual records (155 pages ; 22.1 x 27.8 cm or smaller)

History / Biographical: See fonds level description.

Scope & Content: File pertains to 22 hand-written letters written by Catharine Robb Whyte to her mother, Edith Morse Robb from February 1 to May 18, 1934. Topics include leaving Honolulu for Tokyo via the Canadian Pacific Steamer "Empress of Japan" in late March, life aboard ship, comments and descriptions of the ship and other passengers, weather, books Pete and Catharine are reading, arriving in Tokyo, extensive details of most everything Catharine comes into contact with [this was her first visit to Japan and drew a lot from her grandfather's experiences - it was not Pete's first visit], meeting their guide Mr Miyaoka, going to art shows and museums, local cuisine, architecture, music and entertainment, sightseeing, visiting temples and gardens, shopping, sketching, taking Japanese painting lessons, photography and cameras, going for walks [both during the day and at night], going to the movies [also includes comparisons to Hollywood movies], visiting Nikko for a few days in mid-April before returning to Tokyo [while in Nikko Pete and Catharine watched a local festival, although she does not say what the festival was for], dinner parties, leaving Tokyo for Kyoto in late April, descriptions of the trip and countryside from the train, comments on Japanese naval and military activities, their time spent in Kozu on the way to Kyoto, the trains they travelled in and other travellers, farms, the various towns and villages passed [mostly comments on the train stations], Pete's day trip to Kobe to meet with a friend he'd met in Banff, planning the next leg of their trip, touring around the Kyoto area, visiting local landmarks [including gardens, temples/shrines, and factories/specialty shops], making day trips to nearby landmarks and towns [most notably Nara to see the tame deer and to the Imperial Palace], Pete developing films [photographs] in hotel room bathrooms, events and people in Concord and in Banff, going to Kobe for a few days before returning to Kyoto in early May, leaving Japan for China on the M.S. Choko Maru in mid-May, and arriving in Tientsin China.

Notes: Please note: language and attitudes pertaining to Asian people [especially Chinese and Japanese] used throughout is outdated offensive. Most letters are written on hotel/ship letterhead. Most letters have been numbered in red pencil in the upper margin for an unknown project. Some letters are marked with a small x in pencil, indicating where Jon Whyte made notes for use in his project "Catharine Robb Whyte, Peter Whyte: Commemorative Portfolio," originally published in 1981. 94 - 13 page 16 contains a sketch of the Fujiya Hotel in Miyanoshita Japan. 94 - 18 is not dated and has had "May 8?" written in pencil at the top - it has been scanned as its own letter, but it may be part of 94 - 17.