Cowboy, conservationist, and curator Martin S. Garretson was widely considered one of the foremost experts on the natural history of the buffalo as well as one of the preeminent advocates for the preservation of the North American bison for several decades during the early twentieth century. His personal mission to save the buffalo from imminent extinction and to inform the American public of the important role the buffalo played in North American history resulted in Garretson amassing a fascinating collection of material related to the bison and the people concerned with them and their fate. Edmonton's first historian laureate Ken Tingley explores Garretson's life and legacy through his collection in this splendid catalogue, which accompanied a 2012 exhibition of the Garretson Collection. The exhibition was mounted by the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at Enterprise Square in downtown Edmonton, Alberta.
Ken Tingley, the City of Edmonton’s first historian laureate, has been involved in historical research and writing for forty years. Ken’s family moved from Moncton, New Brunswick, to Royalties, Alberta, in 1955, then to Edmonton in 1956. He has a deep interest in local history and the ephemera that so often expresses that history. His numerous publications include Alberta Remembers: Recalling Our Rural Roots, with Karen Brownlee; A is Alberta: A Centennial Alphabet, with R.F.M. McInnis; The Heart of the City, for Cloverdale Community League; The Path of Duty: The Wartime Letters of Alwyn Bramley-Moore, for the Historical Society of Alberta; and The Strathcona Dream, for the Old Strathcona Foundation.
Dr. Merrill Distad, Associate University Librarian (Research and Special Collections Services) and University Archivist, University of Alberta, is the co-editor of Peel’s Bibliography of the Canadian Prairies to 1953 (Toronto, 2003) and the author, most recently, of The University of Alberta Library: The First Hundred Years, 1908-2008 (Edmonton, 2009). He has been employed at the University of Alberta since 1987.