Fonds consists of materials pertaining to Ben Gadd's personal life and career as an environmental researcher, educator, interpretive guide, publisher, public speaker and author, ca.1956-2018. Fonds includes maps, research materials, publication notes/drafts, correspondence, contracts, photographs, …
ca. 7.9 metres of textual records -- ca. 274 maps -- 29 VHS tapes -- ca.15 discs with digital files -- 21 cassettes -- photographs -- oversized materials -- USB stick with 15 sldeshows
History / Biographical
Ben Gadd (1946-) is a retired naturalist, guide, geologist, instructor, freelance writer and award-winning author based in the Canadian Rockies.
Ben was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1946. He met his wife, Cia (Langdon) Gadd at Colorado College in 1965, and the couple married four weeks later. Ben and Cia had two sons, Will and Toby. Ben and his family relocated to Jasper in the late 1960s. Ben later attended the University of Lethbridge and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Earth Science in 1972.
Between 1976 and 1980, Ben taught classes at Mount Royal College and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology; he later taught additional classes at Grant MacEwan College and Lakeland College. From 1981, Ben also worked as a seasonal naturalist/guide for Parks Canada. Ben left Parks Canada in 1985 to start an independent naturalist guiding business with Cia based in Jasper and other parts of the Canadian Rockies, which the couple continued to operate for over two decades.
Ben published his best-known work, "Handbook of the Canadian Rockies", through his publishing company Corax Press in 1986. The second edition of "Handbook of the Canadian Rockies" received multiple awards after its release in 1995. Ben's fiction book, "Raven's End" won the title of Best Canadian Rockies Book at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival in 2001 and became a Canadian bestseller. Overall, Ben has authored or co-authored 11 books and received nearly one dozen awards for his achievements as a writer, researcher and guide.
Ben continued to lead guided hikes and school programs until his retirement in 2016.
Scope & Content
Fonds consists of materials pertaining to Ben Gadd's personal life and career as an environmental researcher, educator, interpretive guide, publisher, public speaker and author, ca.1956-2018. Fonds includes maps, research materials, publication notes/drafts, correspondence, contracts, photographs, video and sound recordings, and other related material. Materials donated in 2024 include one USB stick containing
Notes
Ben Gadd fonds arrangement:
Series I : Personal records
- Subseries A : Travel guides and maps
- Subseries B : Education and early writings
- Subseries C : Personal interest files
- Subseries D : Other personal and collected
Series II : Research and publication records
- Subseries A : Handbook of the Canadian Rockies
- Subseries B : Other publications
Series III : Professional records
- Subseries A : Parks Canada Records
- Subseries B : Interpretive guiding
- Subseries C : Teaching records
- Subseries D : Other contracts and projects
Series IV : Legal and financial records
- Subseries A : Legal records
- Subseries B : Financial records
The Henry Vaux Jr. fonds consists of 495 negative photographs taken by Henry Vaux Jr. between 1997-2013. Photographs depict various regions within the Canadian Rockies including mountain ranges, water features and other landscapes, replicating photographs of the same regions taken by his ancestors …
Henry Vaux Jr. (1940-) is a professor emeritus of ersource economics at the University of California. Henry Vaux Jr. retired in 2004 following and extensive career in the field of water resource economics, including positions as the director of the University of Calgary Water Resource Centre, a national associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and chair of the Water Science and Technology Board of the National Research Council. Vaux Jr. is the author of over 90 publications in his field, including "Legacy in Time: Three Generations of Mountain Photography in the Canadian West". Vaux Jr. is a member of the well-known Vaux family of the Canadian Rockies region (see fonds level entry for M107/V653).
Scope & Content
The Henry Vaux Jr. fonds consists of 495 negative photographs taken by Henry Vaux Jr. between 1997-2013. Photographs depict various regions within the Canadian Rockies including mountain ranges, water features and other landscapes, replicating photographs of the same regions taken by his ancestors George Vaux IX, Mary Vaux and William Vaux, between ca. 1897 and ca. 1912. The fonds consists of:
Series I : Legacy in Time (contains ca. 485 negatives of images used in Henry Vaux Jr.'s book "Legacy in Time: Three Generations of Mountain Photography in the Canadian West"). Series I consists of five
sub-series:
Sub-series A (Glaciers), 165 photographs; B (Mountains), 135 photographs; C (Water Falls), 60 photographs; D (Lakes), 75 photographs; and E (People), 60 photographs.
Notes
Negatives in Series I were organized by Henry Vaux Jr. based on their corresponding chapters in his book, "Legacy in Time"; sub-series have been named according to corresponding chapter names given by Henry Vaux Jr.
http://glacierchange.org/scrapbook/vaux-family-gallery/
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/going-back-in-time-to-record-retreat-of-glaciers
https://rmbooks.com/book-author/henry-vaux-jr/
Vaux, Henry Jr. "Legacy in Time: Three Generations of Mountain Photography in the Canadian West" (Calgary: Rocky Mountain Books, 2014).