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- Graphic material
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- Source of title proper: Title based on contents of fonds.
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Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1899-1910 (Creation)
- Creator
- William Brooks Cabot
Physical description area
Physical description
42 B &W photographs
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
William Brooks Cabot (1858-19??) was born into a successful merchant and banking family in Battleboro, Vermont in 1858. While still a young man he developed an interest in nature and the outdoors that lasted all his life. Cabot received his schooling in civil engineering at Yale and at Rensselaer, where he graduated in 1881. For the next twenty years he was engaged in an active and successful career, building railroads in the west and bridges throughout New England and New York. He supervised mining operations in Pennsylvania and oversaw many construction projects, including a portion of the New York aqueduct, the subway system under Times Square and, in Boston, the Charles River dam and esplanade. In 1899, a mid-winter vacation trip found him with two Indian guides on a long overland trek to the Hudson Bay post at Lake Mistassini. One of these guides, John Bastian, had travelled extensively through Quebec and Labrador, and probably piqued Cabot’s interest in this part of the world. Between 1900 and 1925 he made annual trips to Labrador and the Quebec North Shore with the intention of living and travelling with different groups of Indians. He spent parts of eight summers (1903-1910) in Northern Labrador among the Naskapi (Innu) and three summers (1921, 1923, 1924) along the Southern Labrador Coast. He “felt passionately that the interior regions of the Quebec-Labrador plateau belonged to the Indians who had long lived there” and probably kept quiet about iron ore deposits he may have encountered in his travels because of a fear that development of the area would destroy their way of life. Although he travelled extensively in the North, he did little to publicize this part of his life beyond a few lectures and a modest publication (Northern Labrador). More than 3000 of his photographs survive in the form of negatives, glass lantern slides and photographic prints, along with his journals,maps and boxes of correspondence. [Source: O Darkly Bright: The Labrador Journeys of William Brooks Cabot, 1899-1910 by Stephen Loring]
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of 42 black and white photographs taken by Cabot during his journeys in Labrador. The photographs are part of an exhibition of 57 photographs held at the Johnson Memorial Gallery of Middlebury College in Vermont from January-February 1985. The photographs are mainly of Innu men, women and children engaged in their daily activities and of the landscape surrounding their homes.
Notes area
Physical condition
Photographs are framed and displayed in THEM DAYS offices.
Immediate source of acquisition
In 1994, THEM DAYS was approached by Ken Pohlman of Middlebury College, who made a gift of the photographs and arranged for their packaging and transportation from Vermont to Labrador.
Arrangement
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Script of material
Location of originals
Original negatives housed in Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
No restrictions.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
With permission of archivist.
Finding aids
A catalogue of the 1985 exhibition is available.
Associated materials
Accruals
No further accruals expected.
General note
William Brooks Cabot’s papers and original glass plate negatives and photographic prints are located in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
Accompanying material
The catalogue of the 1985 exhibition written by Stephen Loring O Darkly Bright: The Labrador Journeys of William Brooks Cabot, 1899-1910.