Humanistic geographers have sought to grasp an empathetic understanding and interpretation of people's sense of place through art and literature. In this context, geographers have also attempted to approach an understanding of the issue of Canadian identity. Charles William Jefferys was a pioneer in his quest to clarify and express a unique Canadian identity. His work as an artist at the turn of the century helped thrust Canadian art into a distinctive mode of indigenous expression most usually associated with the Group of Seven. As a historian, Jefferys worked to preserve the vanishing fragments of Canadian history before they escaped the nation's storehouse. Combining his two loves of art and history, Jefferys attempted to propagate his vision of Canadian identity--a special sense of place and history for the nation's citizens--by illustrating school history textbooks. Working from a foundation of reviewing the humanistic geographer's interest in literature and art as sources to understand people's sense of place, and an outline of some of the theoretical underpinning of mass communication, this research will identify the images in Jefferys' illustrative work in history textbooks using content analysis--one of the first attempts at applying content analysis to the study of visual imagery. The interpretation of the images is accompanied and reinforced by an examination of the development of Jefferys' thought and work through archival research into his memoirs, notes, and correspondence.
