Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
E. O. Wheeler fonds
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on contents of fonds
Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
46 v. + 4 items of textual records
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
E. O. (Edward Oliver) Wheeler, 1890-1962, was a Canadian surveyor, soldier and mountaineer. Wheeler was born in Ottawa, the son of A. O. (Arthur Oliver) Wheeler, Dominion Land Surveyor and founder of the Alpine Club of Canada. E. O. Wheeler served in the Royal Engineers in World War I and received the Military Cross in 1916 and the Legion of Honour (France). In 1941 he was appointed Surveyor-General of India and in 1943 was knighted by King George VI. During World War II, he served as Director of the Frontier Circle of the Survey of India. Wheeler retired to Lavington, British Columbia in 1947. Throughout his life, Wheeler was involved in world mountaineering. He worked on the mapping of the 1922 expedition of Mount Everest and was active in the Alpine Club of Canada, serving as its President from 1950 to 1954
Custodial history
Material was released from family custody sometime after Wheeler's death, possibly during the 1960s, and has been circulating for some time in private hands and on the open market in the Vancouver area and perhaps elsewhere. 36 volumes of E.O. Wheeler's diaries were transfered from the BC Archives to the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in 2004.
Scope and content
Fonds consists of three series : I. Diaries, 1902-1963, 44 v of textual records; II. Scrapbooks, 1910-1933, 2 v. of textual records; III. Other material, [1946-1947], 4 items. Diaries pertain to early life in Ontario and Alberta, service as a surveyor in India, service with the Royal Engineers in France and Mesopotamia, 1915-1918, trips on leave from India to Canada, U.S.A., England, South Africa, Asia, south Pacific, and New Zealand. Diaries also detail ACC camp preparations and activities, travel to and from Banff, clubhouse work; travel details, daily activities and accounts of climbs in France and Scotland; trans-Atlantic and trans-Canada voyage; Alpine Club of Canada Vermilion Camp activities; Strathcona, Vancouver Island reconnaissance trip and climbs; travels to California, Hawaii and Japan: travel from Los Angeles to Canada, through British Columbia to Banff; ACC camp at Glacier, B.C. trip from India to Canada; life in Banff; trips and ACC camps in the Rockies, Selkirks and Kootenay district; ACC activities and operations; travels in the Okanagan, Kootenays and Columbia Valley, BC. Also included in this series are two diaries of his wife Dorothea. Scrapbooks pertain to school life, military training, surveyor's training; Alpine Club of Canada activities and lecture activities; military career, 1910-1919; surveying and mountaineering activities; Mount Everest expedition of 1921. Other material consists of items found loose in the 1946-1948 diaries, including letter written on board ship from Asia to the United States, 1947; photographs of unidentified women, 2 items; and postcard of Vancouver City Hall
Notes area
Physical condition
Scrapbooks are in fragile condition and oversize
Immediate source of acquisition
Acquired by donation and purchase, 1988-2002; transfer 2004;Scrapbooks and 1910 diary were purchased from Serendipity Books of Berkeley, California, 1988-1989. Five diaries were donated by Virginia and Gary Bowden in 2002; 36 v were transfered in 2004 from the B.C. Archives in exchange for the Phyllis and Don Munday photographs and miscellaneous records.
Arrangement
Language of material
- Language is English
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
No restrictions on access;Copyright, privacy, commercial use and other restrictions may apply
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Basic description only
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Record No. M169<br><br>
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Wheeler, E. O. (Subject)