The funeral of H.R.H. Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh on Saturday made me think of a small collection of 20 or so photos in the City of Wetaskiwin Archives. They feature Prince Philip’s future in-laws King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum) during their Royal Visit to Edmonton on June 2, 1939. But why does our local Archives even have these photos?
They were taken by Carl William Walin who moved to Alberta from Minnesota with his family when he was three-years-old. In 1919 he purchased the F.L. Talbot photographic business in Wetaskiwin (above what is now Jasper’s Studio) and renamed it the Walin Studio of Fine Portrait Photography. For a period of time in the 1930s, Mr. Walin also operated film development services called Artistone Studio and was accredited to photograph Royal Tours of Canada. He was one of only three photographers, not including the official ones who accompanied the royal couple, permitted on the train platform and steps of the Legislative Building during the Royal Visit of King George VI. These 20 or so photographs that he took on that day were on display in his Artistone Studio.
Wallin moved to Vancouver in 1956 and sold his studio to Bert Jasperse, who eventually renamed the business Jasperse Studios. Carl Walin’s photographs are an important chronicle of early to middle 20th-century life in Alberta and especially significant for those of us interested in the history of the Wetaskiwin area. Mr. Walin died in Edmonton in 1966 and is buried in Wetaskiwin.