Mary Vaux Walcott

Mary Vaux Walcott (née Mary Morris Vaux) was a Philadelphia Quaker whose four decades of fieldwork in the Canadian Rockies established her as a pioneering glacial photographer, botanical illustrator, and mountaineer; dubbed “the Audubon of Botany.” Her work at Lake Louise, the Victoria Glacier, and across the Rockies provides one of the earliest environmental baselines for North America.

Early formation. Born in 1860 to an affluent Quaker family, Mary received watercolors at age eight and developed a precocious talent for botanical rendering. After her mother’s death in 1880 she managed the household and dairy farm but continued self-directed study. The family’s 1887 expedition via the Canadian Pacific Railway; a four-month, 10,000-mile journey through the American West and Canadian Rockies; shifted her focus from domestic gardens to alpine wilderness. At Glacier House in the Selkirk Mountains she and her brothers (George Jr., William Jr.) documented the Illecillewaet Glacier using fixed-point photography, creating the first formal visual record of glacial recession in North America.

Glaciology. From 1894 to 1922 the Vaux family systematically measured and photographed the Illecillewaet, Asulkan, Yoho, Victoria, and Wenkchemna glaciers; triangulation, iron plates, compass lines, rephotography. Mary developed glass plates in makeshift darkrooms (blankets in hotel closets, cold tents). After William’s death in 1908 she continued independently; she provided the final revision of the CPR’s glaciology pamphlet in 1922. Climate scientists now use her “then-and-now” images as a baseline for glacial retreat.

Lake Louise and Victoria Glacier. The Vaux family documented the Victoria Glacier using the same fixed-point methods. Mary’s 1904 photographs from Mount Fairview provide a rare panorama of the early twentieth-century Lake Louise valley. She referred to the area as her “Rocky Mountain garden”; a sanctuary for botanical work that remained less crowded than the Selkirks into the 1930s.

Botanical turn. A chance request at Glacier House; paint a rare blooming arnica; launched her botanical career. She insisted on field sketches to capture “natural grace and beauty without conventional design,” often building fires to warm her fingers on alpine passes. Her Lake Louise Arnica (Arnica louiseana), painted in 1922, became a symbol of her commitment to documenting endemic species. She produced over 1,000 watercolor sketches; 400 were selected for North American Wild Flowers (1925–1929), a five-volume Smithsonian publication that remains a definitive botanical record.

Marriage and Burgess Shale. In 1914, at 54, Mary married Charles Doolittle Walcott; paleontologist, Burgess Shale discoverer, Secretary of the Smithsonian. She assisted with cataloging, sketching, and photographing the Burgess Shale fossils; they spent summers in the Rockies until Charles’s death in 1927. She established the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal for pre-Cambrian research.

Mountaineering. First woman to summit a peak over 10,000 ft in Canada (Mount Stephen, Yoho, 1900). Founding member of the Alpine Club of Canada (1906); advocated for safer climbing practices and equality; the club eventually decreed skirts prohibited on roped climbs. With Mary Schäffer Warren, first white women to explore the Nakimu Caves near Rogers Pass. By the end of her life she estimated she had ridden over 5,000 miles on mountain trails.

Commemoration. Mount Mary Vaux (3,208 m) in Jasper National Park was named in 1908 by Mary Schäffer Warren. The orchid hybrid x Rhyncattleanthe Mary Vaux Walcott was named in her honour in 2022. Her photographs and papers are held at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff.