Picturing E. Pauline Johnson / Tekahionwake:

Abstract

Illustrations—both drawings and photographs—appeared in most books by E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913), Canada’s first prominent Indigenous author, from their first publication in the early twentieth century through various reprints and editions into the twenty-first. This article examines the evolution of these images as we address the choices made by her publishers with regard to moments and modes of illustration, with special attention to her two most popular volumes, Legends of Vancouver (1911) and Flint and Feather (1912). Focusing on the interior illustrations that were read along with the texts, we consider how these drawings and photographs contributed to the construction of Johnson as an Indigenous author and to the interpretation of her stories and poems by those who prepared her books, given that her publications were directed to a mainly non-Indigenous readership.