Mary Schäffer Warren


Mary Schäffer Warren was an American-Canadian naturalist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. She was known for her experiences in the Canadian Rockies in the early 20th century.

Biography

Warren was born Mary Townsend Sharples in 1861 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She studied flower painting with George Cochran Lambdin.
In 1889 Sharples embarked on her first visit to the Canadian Rockies, accompanied by her fellow art student, Mary Vaux. In 1890 she married Dr. Charles Schäffer, an amateur botanist, whom she had met the previous year at Glacier House, the Canadian Pacific Railway's hotel in the Selkirk Mountains. The couple would spend summers and autumns traveling in the Canadian Rockies. Their winters were spent in Philadelphia. Charles Schäffer died in 1903, as did Mary's father and mother.
In 1904, Schäffer returned to the Canadian Rockies with her friend Mary "Mollie" Adams determined to complete a botanical guide that her husband had started. To complete this project Schäffer collected botanical specimens and learned the skill of photography. In 1907 Alpine Flora of the Canadian Rocky Mountains was published, with text by Stewardson Brown and drawings and photographs by Schäffer.
In 1912 Schäffer moved permanently to Banff, Alberta. In 1915 she married her longtime friend and mountain guide William "Billy" Warren.
Mary Schäffer Warren published articles about her explorations of the Rockies. Many have been collected in This Wild Spirit: Women in the Rocky Mountains of Canada.
She died in 1939 in Banff.

Legacy

In 1909, a mountain in Yoho National Park was named Mount Schaffer in her honor. In 2003, the University of Alberta named their newest student residence Schäffer Hall as a tribute to Schäffer Warren.
Janice Sanford Beck is the author of “No Ordinary Woman: The Story of Mary Schäffer Warren”. Her latest works, “Life of the Trail 1” and “Life of the Trail 2”, are collaborations with Emerson Sanford that retrace the footsteps of early travelers in and around eastern Banff National Park and northern Yoho National Park.