William Copeland McCalla: Pioneer of Alberta Botany and Botanical Photography

November 8, 1872

On this day, William Copeland McCalla was born

Born into a family where his father ran a conservatory in St. Catharines, Ontario, McCalla developed twin passions that would define his career: botany and photography. Though health issues prevented him from completing his studies at Cornell University in the early 1890s, his dedication to botanical science never wavered.

In 1899, McCalla embarked on a pivotal botanical collecting trip to Banff, Alberta, supported by the Canadian Pacific Railway in exchange for photographs. After marrying Margaret A. Ratcliffe in 1902 and raising eight children, he operated Sunny Acres fruit farm near St. Catharines until relocating to Edmonton, Alberta in 1913.

His most enduring contribution was the creation of over 1,000 hand-colored lantern slides. Using a large-format sheet-film camera, he would create black-and-white photographic images on glass plates, then meticulously hand-color them using special paints and an elaborate color chart. Despite having eye muscle problems that prevented him from using a microscope, his attention to detail was extraordinary. These slides covered:

• Flower life cycles and movement
• Fertilization and seed production
• Fruit development
• Flower and vegetable gardening
• Microscopic plant structures
• Farm scenes and ornamental plantings

McCalla's 1920 publication "Wild Flowers of Western Canada" became a cornerstone of botanical education in Alberta schools.

As an educator at both Edmonton and Calgary Normal Schools, he often began his lectures with Euripides' quote:

Happy is the man whose lot it is to know the secrets of the earth.

His legacy includes:

• An honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Alberta (1956)
• A herbarium collection of approximately 14,000 sheets donated to the University of Alberta
• 25 volumes of flower and tree photographs, now housed in the National Museum at Ottawa
• Three plant species named in his honor
• His lantern slides, preserved at the University of Calgary's Botany Department and the University of Alberta's Entomology Department