Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on the content of the records.
Level of description
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1885-1931 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
14 maps. - 9 photographs. - 0.01 m of textual records.
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Alfred Driscoll was born July 2, 1865 in Aylmer, Quebec. He was educated at the Aylmer Academy, Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario and at the University of Toronto.
He first came west in 1883, surveying aboriginal lands; he was engaged in survey work when the Riel resistance broke out in 1885 and joined a troop of scouts commanded by Captain J.S. Dennis. After becoming a Dominion Land Surveyor in 1887 and spending a few years working on the prairies, Alfred became head of surveys in British Columbia for an area from Revelstoke to New Westminster. In 1893, he was a member of a Canadian party surveying the Alaskan boundary and was later a member of the International Boundary Commission.
In 1893, he opened a survey office in Edmonton, North West Territories. He was an engineer in connection with the construction of bridges over an arm of the Fraser River in British Columbia. In 1898, Alfred married Margaret Ryder (1875-1939) in Chilliwack, British Columbia; they had three children: Eleanor (1899-1983), Aileen Charlotte (1902-1960), and Robert Henry (Bob) (1904-1990). In 1899, he again worked as a Dominion Land Surveyor as District Surveyor for Edmonton. In 1906, he entered into a partnership with Richard H. Knight, and their surveying and consulting engineering company was known as Driscoll and Knight; the partnership continued until Knight's death in 1931. From 1916 to 1917, Driscoll was superintendent of Jasper National Park.
Alfred Driscoll died April 11, 1932.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of records relating to Alfred Driscoll and includes his certificate of appointment as Dominion Land Surveyor, a surveying certificate, a copyright certificate, images of Alfred Driscoll, a hunting party (including Driscoll), members of the International Boundary Commission, maps of road diversions in the Municipal District of Sturgeon No. 548 by A. Driscoll, a 1908 map of Edmonton by A. Driscoll, and Driscoll and Knight maps for the Municipal Districts of Grasswold No. 248, Lorne No. 400, Merton No. 451, Wellington No. 481, Cornhill No. 487, Black Mud No. 488, Liberty, No. 489, The Pines No. 516, Sturgeon No. 548, Pibroch No. 609 and Nelson No. 638. The fonds also includes Grand Trunk Pacific Railway photographs of Jasper, including images of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's visit to Jasper in 1914, Angel Glacier, the sign at the summit of the Yellowhead Pass, an internment camp at Jasper, a horse-drawn wagon, Maligne Canyon, and Mount Edith Cavell.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
R.H. Driscoll (PR1978.0101), Alfred Driscoll's son, and Norah J. Driscoll (PR1994.0212), R.H. Driscoll's wife, deposited the records in the Provincial Archives of Alberta in 1978 and 1994.
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script note
The material is in English.
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Access Conditions: None
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Use Conditions: Permission for use required. Subject to the Copyright Act.
Finding aids
File list is available.
Associated materials
For records relating to A. Driscoll's time spent as a Dominion Land Surveyor, see GR1983.0199 and GR1983.0376 for his field notebooks, and GR1985.0034 for correspondence with the Department of the Interior.
Also see the A. Driscoll fonds at the British Columbia Archives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Accruals
Further accruals are not expected.
General note
Information for the biographical sketch is taken from Edmonton Journal obituaries and from the records. Images can be located in the A file of the Provincial Archives of Alberta reference prints under the numbers A.2924 through A.2926. Another image can be located in the B (Brown) file under the number B.6456. This fonds was donated at the same time, and in the same accession as an unrelated discrete item: an image of an unidentified hockey team which includes R.H. Driscoll.
General note
Includes accessions PR1994.0212 and PR1978.0101.