Archives West Finding Aid

Lyman Cary Read was born in 1851 to British parents, Hosea Read and Louise Cary. He became a band master in Vermont. He moved to Colfax, Washington sometime before 1896. There he shot squirrels, taught music and traveled throughout Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho with bands and orchestras playing for dances and concerts. The Atlin Historical Society indicates that his band also traveled in Europe. He wrote and published music, including the chamber work "Canary Polka" for piano and piccolo. He moved to Atlin, British Columbia, Canada, sometime in 1909, where he set up a photo studio. He was a wilderness photographer and guide, and an expert on the Llewellyn Glacier near Atlin. Some of his additional photos are represented in the Alaska State Library in Juneau and the Yukon Archives Digital Data Base. His "Scenes from the Atlin Lake Region of British Columbia, from hitherto unpublished photographs" was published in the American Museum of Natural History's Natural History, Vol. 21 , in 1921. His 1901-1906 diaries are collected in the Eastern Washington State Historical Society /Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture Joel E. Ferris Research Library and Archives in Spokane, Washington. He died on January 6, 1924.