Harry Bullock-Webster, a young Brit who came to Canada in the early 1870’s, worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company throughout the country’s western regions, starting as an apprentice clerk and eventually working his way up to become head of the Fort Connelly trading post in northern British Columbia.
Bullock-Webster, although never formally trained as an artist, sketched throughout the time he worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company, accumulating an album of over 93 sketches. These focused on the daily life, activities and customs around the trading posts where he worked, including Stuart Lake and Fort Macleod. Many of Bullock-Webster’s sketches include depictions of the First Nation and Métis peoples whom he encountered, whose participation in the fur trade was integral to the success of the industry as a whole.
By 1880 Bullock-Webster returned to England, and in 1881 he decided not to return to Canada, but to go to New Zealand instead. In 1938 he published a book titled Memories of Sport and Travel Fifty Years Ago: From the Hudson’s Bay Company to New Zealand. His sketches stand as a remarkable record of the pioneering spirit of early traders, and the close working relationships they had with local Aboriginal communities.
To learn more about the collection please visit the following link in Open Collections: https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bullock
The H. Bullock-Webster collection is also on Flickr! To view the images, click here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ubclibrary_digicentre/albums/72157637677544466