Roy Gordon Hemmerich fonds [multiple media (some electronic)] Archives / Collections and Fonds
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Roy Gordon Hemmerich fonds [multiple media (some electronic)]
Hierarchical level:FondsContext of this record:Fonds includes:4 lower level description(s)View lower level description(s) -
Finding aid Textual, photographic and cartographic material (Electronic) Finding aid describes volumes 1 to 3 at the file level. See lower level descriptions. MSS2595 (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf002/p000003525.pdf -
Record information Roy Gordon Hemmerich fonds [multiple media (some electronic)]
Date:n.d., 1945, 1949, 1954-1955.Reference:R15580-0-2-EType of material:Photographs, Textual material, Maps and cartographic material, Moving imagesFound in:Archives / Collections and FondsItem ID number:4848140Date(s):n.d., 1945, 1949, 1954-1955.Place of creation:CanadaExtent:9 cm of textual records.
330 photographs : 136 b&w; 57 col. slides; 137 b&w negatives.
1 film reel (12 min, 44 s) : 16 mm.
194 photographs (1 album) : b&w.
1 map.Language of material:EnglishAdded language of material:English, InuktitutScope and content:This fonds consists of textual records, photographs, and moving images created and accumulated by Dr. Roy Hemmerich during his three trips to the Canadian Arctic. It documents mainly the first trip in 1945, with some documents being related to the other two trips (1949 and 1954-1955).
The textual records include Dr. Hemmerich's correspondence, along with his own account of the 1945 trip. These documents bring context and many details about life on board the Nascopie, shortly before it ran aground in 1947. It also offers a glimpse of what life was like in the Canadian North in the 1940's and 1950's. Among the textual records, we can find a summons for juror for the murder trial of an Inuit woman, dated September 3, 1945. Indeed, Dr. Hemmerich was a member of the jury for the trial of Miktaeyout, a young Inuit woman charged with the murder of her husband in 1942. Also interesting is Dr. Hemmerich's Record of Dental Services to Eskimos, a detailed list of the Inuit people he treated during the 1945 trip (the list include the place where the services were given, the names of the individuals, the nature and value of the treatment, etc.).
Newspaper clippings help document the story of the three trips north made by Dr. Hemmerich. They also give a lot of information about the last years of the Nascopie, especially in relation with its last voyage in 1947, when it struck a reef near the entrance of Cape Dorset Harbour. The publications, generally produced by different levels of government, give an insight on the knowledge of the Arctic and its inhabitants around 1945.
During his three trips, Dr. Hemmerich took close to 400 pictures in different formats. The black and white pictures and the negatives document mainly the 1945 trip, while the slides are mostly related to the 1949 and 1954-1955 ones. No matter the format or the year they were taken, the various images are similar in what they show, generally portraits of individuals (white people being represented more often than Inuit, with the passengers of the 1945 Nascopie trip being very often pictured), landscapes of the Arctic, scenes of Inuit daily life, Dr. Hemmerich at work, etc. The pictures of Inuit, either individuals or in small groups, as well as the scenes from their daily life (like pictures of whale cutting), are of particular interest.
During his 1945 trip, Dr. Hemmerich shot a silent movie, 12 minutes and 44 seconds in duration. The movie shows the scenery of the North (Arctic Sea, icebergs, islands from a distance, etc.). A sequence shows a group of Inuit cutting down a whale in order to eat it or store it for later. There are some images of a ceremony on board the Nascopie; possibly the ceremony held to mark the 100th anniversary of the Franklin expedition. Towards the end, we can see images of a harbour, probably Montreal which was the port of call of the Nascopie.Provenance:Additional name(s):Biography/Administrative history:Hemmerich, Roy Gordon, 1903-1963 : Roy Gordon Hemmerich was born in Preston, Ontario, on July 13, 1903. After graduating from the University of Toronto dental school in 1927, he began his career as a dentist in Kitchener. After a first trip to the Arctic in 1945 to provide dental care for locals, he made two additional trips in 1949 and 1954-1955 for the same purpose.
From the 1920s to the 1940s, the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) was bringing supplies to its northern stations through a yearly trip of its ship, the R.M.S. Nascopie. The Eastern Arctic Patrol, as it was called, was also a means of rotating HBC employees, enabling them to see a doctor, a dentist, etc. In 1945, Dr. Hemmerich made the trip as the HBC dentist; his job was to provide dental service to HBC employees first, and then to any other individuals available (mainly the Inuit, but also RCMP officers, etc.) "to the extent of the time available". Contrary to the dentists who made the trip before him, he decided to go ashore to perform his work (as opposed to staying on the Nascopie). As a result, he treated over 90 Inuit during this trip.
In 1949, upon request from the Canadian government, he inaugurated the far northern dental care, in order to provide dental care for the Canadian Forces personnel and the Inuit in the Arctic. Dr. Hemmerich made another trip to the Arctic in 1954-1955, for a total of three trips between 1945 and 1955. Dr. Hemmerich died in 1963. According to his obituary published in the Kitchener-Waterloo Record on October 7, 1963 (page 3), he travelled "(...) farther North than any other member of the profession"Additional information:Custodial history:The documents stayed in the family when Dr. Hemmerich passed away in 1963. Dr. Hemmerich's son, Mr. Bruce Hemmerich, donated the documents to Library and Archives Canada between 2014 and 2016.Related material:The Arthur H. Tweedle fonds (R848) at LAC holds related material. Arthur H. Tweedle (1900-1976), was an optometrist and amateur photographer. As an optometrist, he made the 1945 trip on board the R.M.S. Nascopie with Dr. Hemmerich, and it is possible to see Dr. Hemmerich in some of Arthur Tweedle's pictures (see MIKAN numbers 3512397 and 3613886 for two pictures where Dr. Hemmerich can be seen). In the Hemmerich fonds we can see Arthur Tweedle at work in a slide taken by Dr. Hemmerich.Subject heading:Source:Private -
Ordering and viewing options Conditions of access:Graphic (photo)[Consultation Open]Volume [R15580] 2--3[Consultation Open]Textual records[Consultation Open]Volume [R15580] 1[Consultation Open]Cartographic material[Consultation Open]Volume [R15580] 1[Consultation Open]Moving images (film)[Consultation Open]Audio-visual item no. assigned by LAC [R15580][Consultation Open]35957AV;[Consultation Open]V1 1901-0005;[Consultation Open]You can order materials in advance to be ready for you when you visit. You will need a user card to do this.
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