American Historical Ephemera & Photography

6 x 8 1/2 in. album with marbled paper covers and repurposed illustrated pages utilized on verso for drawings, accomplished in pencil and paint, ca late 1890s. Watercolors numbered 1-63 (missing 10, 45, 54, 56-57, and 61), with an additional unnumbered drawing at end paper and corresponding 2pp index at front for a total of 60pp. Condition of drawings generally good with clear lines and vibrant colors, some scattered spotting and light soil; front and back covers with wear especially at edges and along center folds where there is adhesive repair; covers completely detached at spine with one page unattached.

Interior inscription on front pastedown "To Gordon Storkey / 114 West Green Rd / South Tottenham / London Eng" and "G.V. Storkey / Spences Bridge / British Columbia" on front free end paper. Following inscriptions and prior to paintings is a 2pp index identifying page numbers and associated subject of the drawings, including, in part, pipes, moccasins, buffalo and buckskin shirts, pants and leggings, quiver, snow shoes, parfleche, powder horn, and Utankt paddles. Several drawings of unidentified individuals also included in album.

This album, sent by George Volney Storkey (ca 1867-1942) to his young son Gordon Colman Storkey (1890-1917), offers beautifully rendered paintings of British Columbian Indigenous items, most likely associated with the Nlaka’pamux. The Nlaka’pamux are a First Nations people of the Interior Salish language group in southern British Columbia. Their homelands, which included the small community of Spences Bridge, were located along a crucial route associated with Canadian Gold Rushes throughout the mid-to-late 1800s. Henderson's British Columbia Gazetteer and Directory and Mining Companies for 1900-1901 identifies George Storkey as a "prospector" living in Spences Bridge, British Columbia, in 1901, indicating that he was active in the region by this time. Documents related to Storkey's military service indicate that he was residing in Canada beginning in July 1896.

Alberta, Canada, Homestead Records show Storkey making application for a homestead in 1908. He did permanently settle in British Columbia. Military records show Storkey served as a corporal in the Royal Engineers from 1917-1918. He became a member of one of the earliest Freemasonry organizations in the Province, and a 1930 government document shows that "George V. Storkey of Hazelton, B.C." was appointed Stipendiary Magistrate for the County of Prince Rupert. The recipient of this album, Gordon Colman Storkey, was George Storkey's only child. Gordon was killed on 1 August 1917 while serving as a second lieutenant, 2nd Battalion Middlesex Regiment, during World War I.