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THE PIONEER ADVENTURER Mattie Gunterman
In 1969, Ron D’Altroy entered a weathered storage shed in Beaton, British Columbia. Inside the damp shed, among rat feces, he found something unexpected: 200 of Mattie Gunterman’s glass plate negatives. After months of careful treatment, the negatives were saved. The shed was revealed to have been Gunterman’s darkroom. Mattie was born Ida Madeline Werner in La Crosse, Wisconsin. At age 17, she moved to Seattle, Washington. While employed in a hotel, she met her husband-to-be, candy maker William Gunterman. In 1892, they had a son, Henry. A few years later, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the Guntermans headed north for a dryer climate. They purchased land in Thomson’s Landing (Beaton), British Columbia. The Guntermans and their dog Nero walked a thousand kilometres, hunting, trapping, fishing, and working as cooks in mining, logging, and railroad camps along the way.
12 • PhotoEd
1872- 1945
At the time, most amateurs used fixedfocus simple film cameras. Gunterman used a 4×5 inch glass plate camera. This gave her the advantage of a larger negative, more precise focus, and a choice of shutter speeds. Using an extra-long cable release, she would include herself in her photos. Once in Beaton, Gunterman spent winter months developing her plates and making prints. Her photographs show some of the difficulties of pioneer life and the joys of leisure time. She photographed the men at work in the Nettie L. Mine, including the deceased miners as they were being shipped back to their Nova Scotia homes for burial.
William (Bill), Madeline (Mattie), Henry, and dog ‘Nero’. The passage took place in 1902 according to the book Flapjacks and Photographs by Henri Robideau (1995). Image courtesy of Vancouver Public Library, Accession Number 2213, circa 1902.
