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.
