A Not-So-Savage Land: The Art and Times of Frederick Whymper, 1838-1901

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Thursday, October 10th, 2019
7:30 PM to 9:00 PM

A NOT-SO-SAVAGE LAND: The Art and Times of Frederick Whymper, 1838-1901

Frederick Whymper was a British artist and wood-block engraver. During the 1860s, before the advent of practical photography, he sketched the tractless Pacific Northwest as a freelance artist with survey expeditions through mainland B.C., Alaska, Siberia, and southern Vancouver Island.

At the next general meeting of the Nanaimo Historical Society Whymper biographer, Peter Johnson, will share images and journals from Whymper’s 33 drawings of his travels in the Cowichan Valley region, around 1864.

Mount Whymper (Frederick), located between the Chemainus and Nanaimo Rivers is the tallest peak on Vancouver Island south of the 49th parallel.

As our guest presenter, Peter Johnson will also talk about the life and times of this little-known artist from excerpts of his book, A Not-So-Savage Land, 2018; conveying Whymper’s journaling of his colourful experiences and candid impressions during this particularly eventful period in the history of the Pacific Northwest. Johnson will also show his own photographs of much of the landscape Whymper sketched and painted as he retraces the expeditions up Vancouver Island, as well as Bute Inlet, the Yukon, Alaska panhandle, and Siberia.

By 1867 Whymper went back to England and authored three books of his travels.  Returning again to North America he was a staff writer for the newspaper Alta California.  In 1871 he was a founding member of the San Francisco School of Art.  Somehow he faded into obscurity and died unknown and in abject poverty in London in 1901.  A Not-So-Savage Land attempts to solve that mystery.

For the local audience our speaker will also give special consideration to Whymper’s Nanaimo connections.

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About our speaker:

Peter Johnson was born in England and educated in Canada where he has taught history, English, and creative writing in Dublin, London, and western Canada. Writing history, for Peter, was born from a desire to venture beyond inexact and oversimplified views too often found in textbooks.

Prior to the 2018 release of A Not-So-Savage Land, he has written books on; Indigenous petroglyphs; bride-ships sailing from Britain towards gold rush miners; the William Head Quarantine Station; and a historical guide-book on 25 BC lighthouses. His portfolio also contains published critical articles on George Orwell and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

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