Frederick Whymper (20 July 1838 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

– 26 November 1901) was a British

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

ist and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

Biography

Whymper was the eldest son of Elizabeth Whitworth Claridge and

Josiah Wood Whymper Josiah Wood Whymper (Ipswich 24 April 1813 – 7 April 1903 Haslemere) was a British wood-engraver, book illustrator and watercolourist. Early life and education Born the son of a brewer, Whymper was apprenticed to a stonemason. He soon t ...

, a celebrated wood-engraver and artist. His younger brother

Edward Whymper Edward Whymper FRSE (27 April 184016 September 1911) was an English mountaineer, explorer, illustrator, and author best known for the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. Four members of his climbing party were killed during the descent. Wh ...

was a renowned alpinist who made the first ascent of the

Matterhorn The (, ; it, Cervino, ; french: Cervin, ; rm, Matterhorn) is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the main watershed and border between Switzerland and Italy. It is a large, near-symmetric pyramidal peak in the extended Monte Rosa area of th ...

in 1865. In his youth, Whymper was a talented artist working to produce engravings for publication and having his landscapes on exhibit at the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purp ...

from 1859 to 1861. He travelled to

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. T ...

in 1862 and to the

Cariboo The Cariboo is an intermontane region of British Columbia, Canada, centered on a plateau stretching from Fraser Canyon to the Cariboo Mountains. The name is a reference to the caribou that were once abundant in the region. The Cariboo was ...

in the following year. In 1864 he joined road builders in the area of

Bute Inlet Bute Inlet is one of the principal fjord, inlets of the British Columbia Coast. It is long from the estuaries of the Homathko River, Homathko and Southgate Rivers at the head of the inlet, to the mouth, where it is nearly blocked by Stuart Island ...

on the Pacific Coast, leaving shortly before the

Chilcotin War The Chilcotin War, the Chilcotin Uprising or the Bute Inlet Massacre was a confrontation in 1864 between members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) people in British Columbia and white road construction workers. Fourteen men employed by Alfred Wadd ...

. Many of his early travels were by steamship; his drawings include

volcanoes A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and west ...

and

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

glaciers A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...

. While in the far north, Whymper served on the

Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition In 1864 the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition explored areas of the Colony of Vancouver Island outside the capital of Victoria and settlements in Nanaimo and the Cowichan Valley that were then unknown. The expedition went as far north as the ...

and the

Western Union Telegraph Expedition Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

(1865), spending the winter of 1866 at

Nulato Nulato (; "chum salmon fish camp" in Koyukon; russian: Нулато) is a city in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 239. History Nulato was a location for trade between the Koyukon peop ...

with

W.H. Dall William Healey Dall (August 21, 1845 – March 27, 1927) was an American natural history, naturalist, a prominent Malacology, malacologist, and one of the earliest scientific explorers of interior Alaska. He described many mollusks of the Pacific ...

and travelling up the

Yukon River The Yukon River ( Gwich'in: ''Ųųg Han'' or ''Yuk Han'', Yup'ik: ''Kuigpak'', Inupiaq: ''Kuukpak'', Deg Xinag: ''Yeqin'', Hän: ''Tth'echù'' or ''Chuu k'onn'', Southern Tutchone: Chu Nìikwän, russian: Юкон, Yukon) is a major watercour ...

Fort Yukon Fort Yukon (''Gwichyaa Zheh'' in Gwich'in language, Gwich'in) is a city in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska, straddling the Arctic Circle. The population, predominantly Gwich'in Alaska N ...

, where he witnessed the first American flag being raised over the new territory of

. In November 1867, Whymper arrived back in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

where his account of his travels, ''Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska'', was published in 1868. In 1869, he went back to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, by way of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and worked on the staff of the newspaper ''Alta California''. City directories describe him as an artist and mining engineer, and in 1871 he was a founding member of the

San Francisco Art Association The San Francisco Art Association (SFAA) was an organization that promoted California artists, held art exhibitions, published a periodical, and established the first art school west of Chicago. The SFAA – which, by 1961, completed a long sequence ...

. He returned to

at some point, publishing ''The Heroes of the Arctic and their Adventures'' and ''The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril and Heroism'', prior to his death in London on 26 November 1901 by what is listed as "failure of the heart, probably due to indigestion, arising from sedentary pursuits", in his obituary. Mount Whymper, north of

Lake Cowichan Lake Cowichan (Nitinaht: ʕaʔk̓ʷaq c̓uubaʕsaʔtx̣) (pop. 2,974) is a town located on the east end of Cowichan Lake and, by highway, is west of Duncan, British Columbia. The town of Lake Cowichan was incorporated in 1944. The Cowichan Ri ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

, is named in honour of the early explorer, artist and writer. Another taller Mount Whymper in British Columbia is named after his brother Edward, who was the first to climb it.

References

Sources

* * * * *

External links

Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whymper, Frederick English explorers of North America Explorers of Alaska History of Yukon 1838 births 1901 deaths Pre-Confederation British Columbia people Artists' Rifles soldiers Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)