Browse "Nature & Geography"

Albert Peter Low, geologist, explorer (b at Montréal 24 May 1861; d at Ottawa 9 Oct 1942). Low joined the Geological Survey of Canada on graduation from McGill. The Québec-Labrador border was eventually defined on the basis of his 1893-95 explorations.

The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.

Alexander Kennedy Isbister, Métis schoolmaster, explorer, lawyer (born June 1822 in Cumberland House, Rupert's Land, [now in SK]; died 28 May 1883 in London, England).

Alexander Murray, geologist, explorer (b at Crieff, Scot 2 June 1810; d there 18 Dec 1884). Murray served in the Royal Navy 1824-35, and then in 1837 immigrated with his young bride to Woodstock, Upper Canada.

Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn, geologist, director of the Geological Survey of Canada (born 28 July 1824 in Kilmington, England; died 19 October 1902 in Vancouver).

Anahareo, or Gertrude Philomen Bernard, CM, conservationist, prospector (born 18 June 1906 in Mattawa, ON; died 17 June 1986 in Kamloops, BC). An independent, forceful animal welfare advocate, Anahareo is credited with converting her well-known husband, Grey Owl, into a conservationist.

André Michaux, botanist, explorer (b near Versailles, France 8 Mar 1746; d on Madagascar 11 Oct 1803?). He compiled the first North American flora which includes many plants collected in Lower Canada in 1792.

André Siegfried, geographer, political commentator (born 21 April 1875 in Le Havre, France; died 28 March 1959 in Paris, France). Preeminent French geographer of his generation, Siegfried is the author of several books about Canada and North America.

Andrew Hill Clark, historical geographer (b at Fairford, Man 29 Apr 1911; d at Madison, Wisc 21 May 1975). Son of a Baptist medical missionary, Clark was educated at McMaster and University of Toronto where he studied with geographer Griffith Taylor and economic historian Harold Innis.

Andy Russell, CM, writer, conservationist (born 8 December 1915 near Lethbridge, AB; died 1 June 2005).

Annie Linda Jack, née Hayr, writer, horticulturist (born 1 January 1839 in Northamptonshire, England; died 15 February 1912 in Châteauguay, Quebec). Canada’s first professional woman garden writer, Annie Jack authored the popular manual The Canadian Garden: A Pocket Help for the Amateur. She was also a widely published poet, gardening columnist and social commentator.

Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, alias Grey Owl, writer, conservationist (born 18 September 1888 in Hastings, England; died 13 April 1938 in Prince Albert, SK). Grey Owl was a well-known conservationist and writer in the 1930s.

Archibald Gowanlock Huntsman, marine biologist, administrator, editor, teacher (b at Tintern, Ont 23 Nov 1883; d at St Andrews, NB 8 Aug 1973). Huntsman was a provocative thinker and innovator who decisively influenced fisheries science in Canada.

The following article is an editorial written by The Canadian Encyclopedia staff. Editorials are not usually updated.

Arthur Gilbert McCalla, cereal chemist (b at St Catharines, Ont 22 Mar 1906; d at Edmonton 30 Apr 1985).

Arthur Oliver Wheeler, surveyor, mountaineer (born at Lyrath, Ireland 1 May 1860; died at Banff, Alta 20 March 1945). Qualifying in 1881 as Ontario land surveyor, he also obtained Dominion (1882), Manitoba (1882), British Columbia (1891) and Alberta (1911) credentials.

From his early research which focussed on developing an oilseed crop for Manitoba, he became an internationally acclaimed plant breeder, best known for suggesting the elimination of erucic from rapeseed oil and producing low glucosinolate varieties.

Bernard Voyer, explorer and lecturer (born 7 March 1953 in Rimouski, Québec) is a born adventurer.

Bjarni Herjolfsson, Norse explorer (dates of birth and death unknown; lived in the 10th century). Herjolfsson was likely the first European to sight the east coast of North America. While sailing from Iceland to Greenland in 986 CE, Herjolfsson sighted lands that were later determined to be Baffin Island, Labrador and Newfoundland. Although Herjolfsson never set foot in North America, Leif Ericsson later retraced his voyage, establishing a settlement at what he called Vinland.

Catharine Parr Traill, née Strickland, pioneer writer, botanist (born 9 January 1802 in London, England; died 29 August 1899 in Lakefield, ON). Catharine Parr Traill’s books are some of the earliest in the Canadian literary canon. Works such as The Backwoods of Canada: Being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer (1836) offer detailed descriptions of pioneer life in Canada, while Canadian Wildflowers (1868) and Studies of Plant Life in Canada (1885) showcase her skill as an amateur botanist.