Mina Benson Hubbard (April 15, 1870 - May 4, 1956) was a Canadian explorer and was the first white woman to travel and explore the back-country of

Labrador Labrador () is a geographic and cultural region within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is the primarily continental portion of the province and constitutes 71% of the province's area but is home to only 6% of its populatio ...

. The Nascaupee and George River system were first accurately mapped by her in 1905. She was the wife of

Leonidas Hubbard Leonidas Hubbard Jr. (1872 – October 1903) was an American journalist and adventurer. Personal life Hubbard was born in Michigan and studied at the University of Michigan (1893–97), choosing journalism as a career. In 1901 he married Mina ...

who was famous for his ill-fated expedition to Labrador in 1903.

Early life

Mina Adelaine Benson was born on an apple farm near Bewdley, Ontario. Her father was James Benson, an Irish immigrant, and her mother was Jane Wood, from England. She was the seventh of eight children and received a primary education in the village school before teaching in

Cobourg Cobourg ( ) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario east of Toronto and east of Oshawa. It is the largest town in and seat of Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It is ...

for two years. After graduating as a nurse in 1899 from the Brooklyn Training School for Nurses, she went to work in a small hospital in

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, New York, United States. In 1900, she nursed the journalist

whilst he was hospitalized with

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

. They married on January 31, 1901.

Expedition

Following her husband's ill-fated expedition to Labrador in 1903, Hubbard asked a surviving member of the party,

Dillon Wallace Dillon Wallace (1863 – 1939) was an American lawyer, outdoorsman, author of non-fiction, fiction and magazine articles. His first book, ''The Lure of the Labrador Wild'' (1905) was a best-seller, as were many of his later books. Biography Dillo ...

, to record the experience as a memorial to her husband. His published book, ''Lure of the Labrador Wild'' was a commercial success in America, but Hubbard was not satisfied, coming to believe that Wallace was responsible for the death of her husband and that her husband's reputation had been blemished by Wallace's book. In 1905, whilst Wallace was planning to mount a new expedition to complete the goal of 1903, Hubbard put together a team of her own to do the same thing in a bid to clear her husband's name. Consisting of the same George Elson who had been on the earlier expedition, along with two Cree Indians who had taken part in the unsuccessful rescue attempt in 1903, Hubbard's team left Northwest River on June 27, the same day as the Wallace expedition. The press branded it a race and it received considerable attention in the news. The two parties never communicated before or during the expedition. The 576-mile trip was an efficient, well organised trek through the Labrador wilderness, completed on schedule, despite weather delays at the beginning of August when they reached the watershed at

Lake Michikamau Michikamau Lake, in Labrador, Canada, was absorbed into Smallwood Reservoir upon the completion of the Churchill Falls Generating Station The Churchill Falls Generating Station is a hydroelectric underground power station in Labrador. At 5,428 ...

. The expedition arrived at the George River post on

Ungava Bay Ungava Bay (; , ; /) is a bay in Nunavut, Canada separating Nunavik (far northern Quebec) from Baffin Island. Although not geographically apparent, it is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. The bay is roughly oval-shaped, about at its widest p ...

on 29 August, some seven weeks before Wallace. In 43 days of travelling, the Hubbard expedition confirmed that the Nascaupee, Seal Lake, and Lake Michikamau were in the same drainage basin and that the Northwest River and the Nascaupee were, in fact, the same. In addition, Hubbard made extensive notes on the topography, geology, flora, and fauna of this unknown wilderness. She named the source of the George River, Lake Hubbard after her husband. Her book, ''A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador'', and her diaries provide descriptions of her encounters with the

Naskapi The Naskapi (Nascapi, Naskapee, Nascapee) are an Indigenous people of the Subarctic native to the historical region St'aschinuw (ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ, meaning 'our Clusivity, nclusiveland'), which was located in present day northern Qu ...

and

Montagnais The Innu/Ilnu ('man, person'), formerly called Montagnais (French for 'mountain people'; ), are the Indigenous Canadians who inhabit northeastern Labrador in present-day Newfoundland and Labrador and some portions of Quebec. They refer to t ...

Indians, and of the last great herds of Labrador's

caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

Later life

After the trip, Hubbard carried out a lecture tour of England, where, in 1908, she met and married Harold Ellis, a businessman and the son of John Ellis, MP, and his wife

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

. The couple lived at Wrea Head Hall at first, but in 1913, they purchased

The Wabe The Wabe is an architecturally eclectic detached house on Redington Road, Hampstead, London, built in 1902–1903 for the academic and mathematician William Garnett. It was subsequently the home of the Canadian explorer Mina Hubbard and her h ...

, a large detached house in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...

, London, from its designer and original owner, the academic and mathematician William Garnett. Together they had three children but divorced in 1926. She returned to Canada in 1936 to accompany George Elson on a canoe trip down the Moose River in northern Ontario. Hubbard died in

Coulsdon Coulsdon (, traditionally pronounced ) is a town in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon. Coulsdon was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey that included the settlements of Purley and Kenley. It was merged with Sand ...

, United Kingdom, in 1956 at the age of 86, when she was hit by a train while crossing railway tracks. Mina Benson Hubbard Ellis was designated a

National Historic Person Persons of National Historic Significance (National Historic People) () are people designated by the Canadian government as being nationally significant in the history of the country. Designations are made by the Minister of the Environment on the ...

in 2018.Government of Canada Announces New National Historic Designations
Parks Canada news release, January 12, 2018

Bibliography

''Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador''
available at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

References

External links

Biography
-

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

* * *
Audio Biography
Radio Canada : Forgotten Remarkable (French)
"First Lady of Labrador" by Matthew Jachson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbard, Mina Benson Canadian explorers 20th-century Canadian women writers History of Newfoundland and Labrador Explorers of Canada 1870 births 1956 deaths Female explorers Canadian people of Irish descent Canadian people of English descent People from Northumberland County, Ontario Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Canadian nurses Canadian women nurses