This past weekend, the Globe and Mail's Ian Brown profiled Joseph Burr Tyrrell, a Canadian geologist who was the first to survey the territory north of the 60th parallel that stretches from Hudson Bay to what is now Fort McMurray, Alberta. He gave a contemporary twist to the story: about how Tyrrell described the land that is now attributed to Alberta's tar sands. Brown's focus was on the maps that Tyrrell used in the Barren Lands while he attempted to chart the Kazan River. These maps can be found by accessing the Barren Lands digital collection, found here.

Many more images from the Tyrrell collection have been scanned and uploaded to the Fisher's flickr site. Of particular note are the glass negatives and magic lantern slides taken between 1897 and 1902 (see one of the images below). They depict scenes primarily in Southern Ontario. There is also a collection of panoramic photos of mining operations, landscapes and buildings in the Yukon. These were taken by Tyrrell between 1902 and 1905.

Brown's story from the Globe and Mail can be accessed here.

J.B. Tyrrell material highlighted in Globe and Mail