Miriam Green Ellis

Exhibit Catalogue
Bruce Peel Special Collections, University of Alberta

Miriam Green Ellis was a pioneer journalist in Western Canada with a deep knowledge of agriculture, animals, and farming and a keen interest in how people lived and survived. She was a strong advocate for women’s rights, including obtaining the vote, and also had a tendency for adventurous activities and travel. In 1922, she sailed by river boat to Aklavik, NWT and produced a collection of photographs and stories documenting her experiences. These, along with other material and an analysis of her life and career, make up the body of this exhibition catalogue. 

The photographs guided the design of this piece with the entire cover being wrapped in them and many of the pages featuring more than one image. The size of the catalogue was taken directly from the dimensions of Ellis’s photo albums and the typefaces were chosen for their sense of the time period and for their similarity to the typewritten texts of the journalist.