Accession N-2021-004 - Ethel Coates Photograph Collection

Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Ethel Coates Photograph Collection

General material designation

  • Graphic material

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Other title information

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Title notes

Level of description

Accession

Reference code

N-2021-004

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)

  • [ca. 1942]-1953 (Creation)

Physical description area

Physical description

101 photographs : b&w prints
2 photographs : col. print ; 55 x 80 mm

Publisher's series area

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1922-2014)

Biographical history

Ethel Sheila Coates was born in Carbon, Alberta to John Hubert Coates (an immigrant homesteader from London, England) and Edith Coates (Tirney) on January 16, 1922. She grew up on her parents’ farm, but spent most of her school years in Toronto (where her mother was from) and completed high school in Alberta. Her niece suggests that she may have had some formal training as a secretary, and an Ethel Sheila Coates is listed as having passed the Canadian federal government’s stenographers’ civil service exams in May 1941.

She left the family farm and moved to the Northwest Territories alone and worked for Imperial Oil in Normal Wells for a number of years in the 1940s. It appears that she was one of the few secretaries or female employees living and working in Norman Wells, and that she chose to remain there after the wartime project (the Canol project) was completed. According to her niece, she loved the Northwest Territories and referred to her time there as the best time of her life.

Later she moved to Devon, Alberta, where she lived and continued to work for Imperial Oil for approximately thirty years in total. In Alberta, she worked at the Leduc gas plant, which opened in 1950, and taught skiing at the local Devon ski hill. She traveled extensively internationally in the 1950s and 1960s. She did not marry.

She identified as an environmentalist, and established the Coates Conservation Lands as a bequest to the Edmonton Area Land Trust. She died in August 2014 in Devon, Alberta.

Custodial history

The niece of Ethel Sheila Coates donated these records to the Northwest Territories Archives in 2018.

Scope and content

Records include prints formerly owned by Ethel Coates, documenting her experience living and working in Norman Wells. The photographs feature the portraits and daily work and recreation activities of Imperial Oil Ltd employees, including hiking, camping, and dances. Most of the images appear to have been taken in and around Norman Wells and Camp Canol, but it is possible that some were taken elsewhere.

Photographs 0052 through 0102 are arranged according to their order in a scrapbook that was created for Ethel Coates' memorial service, with captions written by her niece.

Notes area

Physical condition

Arrangement

The photographs are generally arranged according to the received order. Photographs 0052 through 0102 are arranged according to their order in a scrapbook. For the remained of the photos, the received order did not appear to have any internal structure or organization.

Ten images in this collection were not retained. Seven of the nine were duplicates of images already held by the Northwest Territories Archives (listed below). The eighth was a damaged duplicate of N-2021-004: 0045, and the ninth was a purchased image of an unidentified landscape.

  • NWT Archives/Henry Jones fonds/N-1981-001: 0002
  • NWT Archives/Henry Jones fonds/N-1981-001: 0046
  • NWT Archives/Henry Jones fonds/N-1981-001: 0047
  • NWT Archives/Henry Jones fonds/N-1981-001: 0048
  • NWT Archives/Henry Jones fonds/N-1981-001: 0072
  • NWT Archives/Henry Jones fonds/N-1981-001: 0082
  • NWT Archives/Henry Jones fonds/N-1981-001: 0093

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

  • Latin

Location of originals

Availability of other formats

Restrictions on access

No access restrictions.

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

CREDIT: NWT Archives/Ethel Coates Photograph Collection/N-2021-004

Finding aids

Associated materials

Related materials

Accruals

Rights

Copyright transferred to NWT Archives by donor.

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Standard number

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Description record identifier

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Language of description

  • English

Script of description

    Sources

    Acquisition area