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Conceptions of the Rocky Mountains: A Comparison of Peter Fidler and David Thompson and Their Mapping Strategies
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- Author / Creator
- McMillan, Bethany
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This thesis explores the ways in which Europeans conceptualized the Rocky Mountains by comparing the views and mapping styles of David Thompson and Peter Fidler. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) needed to establish inland trade to effectively compete with their Montreal based Canadian competitors, the North West Company (NWC). The HBC decided to employ surveyors to provide detailed information of new and established inland trade routes. Peter Fidler and David Thompson were trained by the HBC’s official surveyor, Philip Turnor, in the late eighteenth century. Fidler and Thompson developed different conceptions of the Rocky Mountains from their eastern slope, which is evident in their fur trade and exploration journals. Several factors influenced their conceptions of the mountains. Indigenous inhabitants of the Plains shared maps and navigational knowledge of the landscape with Fidler, who did not have the opportunity to survey the region himself, as trade was the top priority for the HBC. Thompson, surveyed for the NWC, and employed Indigenous people, as hunters and guides, to help him expand the reaches of the NWC into new territory as he surveyed the landscape along the way. Ultimately, Thompson demonstrated a tenaciously European and western view of the Rocky Mountains whereas Fidler’s conception of the Rocky Mountains portrayed an early appreciation for Indigenous knowledge as well as a hybrid style of mapping that married Indigenous and European mapping styles.
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2023
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Arts
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.