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SOVEREIGNTY, DEFENCE AND DISCOVERY
An Arctic Institute of North America project

This website and its interactive maps are designed to be a convenient and accessible portal to portions of the Arctic Institute of North America's photo collection. The Institute is home to a large and diverse collection of Arctic photography, collected over decades from dozens of different expeditions and voyages into the Canadian North.

These collections have all been donated to the Institute by individuals hoping to broaden the public's appreciation and understanding of the North while preserving a visual record of some of modern history's most exciting expeditions. The pictures come from a wide range of sources covering the first half of the twentieth century. From military exercises and RCMP patrols to missions of exploration and discovery, the AINA collection covers many aspects of Arctic activity.

Exploration Documented

The collection's photos document the activities of some of Canada's first explorers and administrators. The role of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for instance, is presented in the Francis French collection and through the voyages of the RCMP steamer, the St. Roch. The collection also examines some of the first concerted efforts made by the scientific community to study, survey and understand the Arctic and its environment. The two missions to Baffin Island organized by P.D. Baird, the first Director of AINA's Montreal office and the British-Canadian Expeditions of the 1930s were some of the early twentieth century's most extensive missions of discovery and were extensively documented by photographers. Photographic records of the first Canadian military exercises into the Arctic, Operations Lemming and Muskox, have also been carefully preserved and donated to the Institute's collection. These photos illustrate the paths taken by the Canadian Army as it expanded its reach north of 60° for the first time after the Second World War.

From Soldiering to Science

The AINA collection follows the paths of explorers, soldiers and scientists; yet no mission to the Arctic was ever so easily defined. When the Canadian Army conducted northern exercises, it brought scientists and cartographers. When geologists and biologists traveled north to study the natural environment they planted flags and asserted Canadian sovereignty. The RCMP mapped and administered, conducted sovereignty patrols and collected taxes, while merchants established outposts and continuously pushed the Arctic frontier farther north.

A Visual Record

The Arctic Institute's collection is a visual record of this development of the Canadian Arctic. It documents the expansion of government involvement in the North and the activities of all manner of scientists, adventurers and explorers. Each of these expeditions strengthened Canada's place in the Arctic while continuously pushing forwards the boundaries of our understanding of the Canadian North.