Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > SCHAFFER, Mary T. S.

Artist Database

SCHAFFER, Mary T. S.

Born
West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1861
Died
Banff, Alberta, 1939
Biography synopsis
Mary T.S. Schaffer (nee Townsend Sharpless) was encouraged by her father, an avid naturalist, to study natural history and flower painting with artist George Lambden. Schaffer first visited the Canadian Rockies in 1889 with her husband Dr. Charles Schaffer, an amateur botanist. She would spend her summers and most of the fall months in the Rockies, returning to Philadelphia in the winter. In 1903, after the death of her husband, Schaffer returned to the Canadian Rockies in order to complete the botanical guide he had begun, with the help of Stewardson Brown, curator at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences Herbarium. It was during this visit that she developed her skills as a photographer, producing high quality hand-painted photographs of her travels in the Rockies. During her lifetime Schaffer published a number of significant articles, books and photographs, which mapped, described, and illustrated her experiences of the Canadian Rockies. In 1911, she successfully surveyed Maligne Lake, which thanks to her efforts was later made a part of Jasper National Park. Mary Schaffer permanently moved to Banff, Alberta, in 1912, where she married Billy Warren, her former guide and friend of many years. The most extensive collection of her photographs can be found at the Whyte Museum in Banff.
Media used
Painting
Photography
File & Archive locations
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, AB - Archives & Library
National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
University of Calgary Library, AB
University of British Columbia - Fine Arts Library
Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Writings about
"Mrs. Schäffer's Discovery and Survey of Lake Maligne, Canadian Rockies." The Geographical Journal 39.4 (Apr. 1912): 379-381
Bassnett, Sarah and S. Bassnett. Photography in Canada, 1839 to 1989 Toronto, On.: Art Canada Institute, 2023
http://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/photography-in-canada-1839-1989/preface/
Beck, Janice Sanford. No Ordinary Woman: The Story of Mary Schaffer Warren. Calgary, Alberta: Rocky Mountain Books, 2001
Bialeschki, Deborah. "Mary Schaffer Warren: A Seeker of Untrodden Paths." Sixth Canadian Congress on Leisure Research Proceedings Waterloo, Ontario: University of Waterloo; Ontario Council on Leisure, 1990
Bouwsema, Kirstin. "A Passion for Wilderness: Understanding the Mountain Travels of Mary T.S. Schaffer Warren, 1861-1939." Canadian Parks for Tomorrow: 40th Anniversary Conference Proceedings Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary, 2008
http://dspace.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/46919
Bown, Stephen R., Nicky Brink. "Mountain Woman: When Mary Schaffer Warren Discovered a Mythical Lake in the Rocky Mountains, it was Pristine - until Word got out." The Beaver 87.3 (Jun/Jul 2007): 42-46
Foran, Jill. Mary Schaffer: An Adventurous Woman's Exploit's in the Canadian Rockies Canmore, Alberta: Altitude Publications, 2003
Gironnay, Sophie. "Aventurieres de la photo: Julia Margaret Cameron, Mary Schaffer Warren, Berenice Abbott, Margaret Bourke-White, Diane Arbus." Châtelaine (Sept. 1989): 8-10,12
Huneault, Kristina. I'm Not Myself at All: Women, Art, and Subjectivity in Canada Montreal; Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2018
Kadane, Lisa. "Historic B&B in Home of Pioneering Woman." Calgary Herald 21 Jun. 2003: 5
Kadane, Lisa. Banff B & B brings Pioneer Woman to 21st-century Visitors: Tarry-A- While National Post 5 Jul. 2003: 3
Lakritz, Naomi. "Mountain Pioneer did it Her Way." Calgary Herald 16 Jun. 2001: 10
Lang, Michale. An Adventurous Woman Abroad: the Lantern Slide of Mary T.S. Schaffer Victoria, British Columbia: Rocky Mountain Books, 2001
Laviolette, Mary-Beth. A Delicate Art: Artists, Wildflowers and Native Plants of the West Vancouver: Rocky Mountain Books, 2012
Lippard, Lucy. "Doubletake: The Diary of a Relationship with an Image." The Photography Reader, edited by Liz Wells London, England: Routledge, 2003: 343-353
MacDonald, Colin S. The Dictionary of Canadian Artists. (Volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker) Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009
MacFarlane, Lisa, et al. "Mary Schaffer's 'Comprehending Equal Eyes.'" Trading Gazes: Euro-American Women Photographers and Native North Americans, 1880-1940 New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2003
Prakash, A. K. Independent Spirit: Early Canadian Women's Art Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books, 2008
Reichwein, Pearlann & Lisa McDermott. "Opening the Secret Garden: Mary Schaffer, Jasper Park Conservation, and the Survey of Maligne Lake, 1911." Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park: Studies in Two Centuries of Human History in the Upper Athabasca River Watershed. Edited by I.S. MacLaren Edmonton, Alberta: The University of Alberta Press, 2007
Reid, Jane E. The Joys of the Long Trail: Three Women Adventure-Travellers in Canada at the Turn of the Century Ottawa, Canada: Carleton University (M.A. thesis), 1990
Rosenblum, Naomi. A History of Women Photographers New York: Abbeville, 2000
Roth, Mark J. "Mary Schaffer Warren: Explorer." Canadian Women Studies 2.3 (1980): 21-24
Roth, Mark J. "The Photographs and Travels of Mary Schaffer Warren." Beaver 309.3 (Aug. 1978): 28-33
Skidmore, Colleen. Rare Merit: Women in Photography in Canada, 1840-1940 Vancouver, B.C.: UBC Press, 2022
Skidmore, Colleen. Searching for Mary Schaffer: Women Wilderness Photography Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2017
Smith, Cyndi. Off the Beaten Track: Women Adventurers and Mountaineers in Western Canada Canmore, Alberta: Coyote Books, 1989
Smith, Cyndi. "Mary Schaffer Warren: Wildernes Artist." Alberta's Western Living 6.8 (Sept. 1981): 51-54
Squire, Shelagh J. "In the Steps of 'Genteel Ladies': Women Tourists in the Canadian Rockies, 1885-1939 Canadian Geographer 39.1 (March 1995): 2-15
Stearns, Sharon. Hunter of Peace Victoria, British Columbia: J. Gordon Shillingford Publishers, 1993
Wells, Liz. "Women and Photography." The Oxford Companion to the Photograph Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006

Writings by
Schaffer, Mary T. S., E.J. Hart (ed). Hunter of Peace: Mary T.S. Schaffer's Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies (With Her Heretofore Unpublished Account 1911 Expedition to Maligne Lake) Banff, Alberta: Whyte Foundation, 1980
Schaffer, Mary T.S. Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies: Incidents of Camp and Trail Life, Covering Two Years' Exploration Through the Rocky Mountains of Canada New York, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons London, 1911
Schaffer, Mary T.S, Colleen Skidmore (ed). "Our Dear Mrs. Young." (1934) In: This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rock Mountains of Canada Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2006
Schaffer, Mary T.S.. Untrodden Paths in the Canadian Rockies Minneapolis, Minnesota: Soo Line, 1910-1920
Schaffer, Mary T.S.. "Among the Sources of the Saskatchewan and Athabasca Rivers." Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia 6.2 (April 1908)
Schaffer, Mary T.S., Colleen Skidmore (ed). "A Recently Explored Lake in the Rocky Range of Canada." (1909) This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada Edmonton, Alberta: The University of Alberta Press, 2006
Schaffer, Mary T.S., Colleen Skidmore (ed). "Breaking the Way." (1904) This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada. Edmonton, Alberta: The University of Alberta Press, 2006
Schaffer, Mary T.S., Colleen Skidmore (ed). "Flora of the Saskatchewan and Athabasca River Tributaries." (1908) This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada Edmonton, Alberta: The University of Alberta Press, 2006
Schaffer, Mary T.S., Colleen Skidmore (ed). "Haunts of the Wild Flowers of the Canadian Rockies: Within Reach of the Canadian Pacific Railroad." (1911) This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada Edmonton, Alberta: The University of Alberta Press, 2006
Schaffer, Mary T.S., Colleen Skidmore (ed). "Untrodden Ways." (1908) This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rocky Mountain of Canada Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta Press, 2006

Search by: