Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Graphic material
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Repository
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)
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[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
Title proper of publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
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
Accruals
Rights
Copyright transferred to NWT Archives by donor.
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Rules or conventions
Language of description
- English