What was "This Wild Spirit"?

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Women's creative and cultural legacy suggests that it was a complex physical, intellectual, and imaginative reaction to a majestic environment that challenged women to explore a wider world, both outside and within themselves. Ultimately, it was liberating, invigorating, and soothing; those who were consumed by it lived lives rich with discovery and adventure.

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Women in the Rocky Mountains include Stoney-Nakoda Aboriginal women who travelled and lived along trails blazed by their bands for generations. Métis women, too, made their homes in the Canadian Rockies after fur traders and explorers reached the prairies and eastern mountain regions in the eighteenth century. After 1885, Canadian, American, and British women followed, arriving aboard the trains of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Some were travelers seeking challenge and diversity in an otherwise socially circumscribed life; others were tourists seeking the comforts of home in a wilderness playground. In time, the image and idea of women in the mountains evoked such glamour and allure that advertisers and Hollywood alike could not resist.

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Inspired by the lives and legacies of women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada, This Wild Spirit explores and shares their creative responses to that vast and magnificent land and culture. 

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Previously exhibited at the Whyte Museum, This Wild Spirit was created by Colleen Skidmore, Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, in conjunction with her book of the same title. It has also been shown in Edmonton, Jasper, and Lethbridge. 

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Available for purchase at any local book retailer, including the Whyte Museum Book Shop.