Mina Benson Hubbard (April 15, 1870 - May 4, 1956) was a Canadian explorer and was the first white woman to travel and explore the back-country of

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

. The Nascaupee and George River system were first accurately mapped by her in 1905. She was the wife of

Leonidas Hubbard Leonidas Hubbard Jr. (1872–1903) was an American journalist and adventurer. He was born in Michigan and studied at the University of Michigan (1893–97), choosing journalism as a career. In 1901 he married Mina Adelaine Benson, a woman two y ...

who was famous for his ill-fated expedition to Labrador in 1903.

Early life

Mina Adelaine Benson was born on an apple farm near Bewdley, Ontario. Her father was James Benson, an Irish immigrant, and her mother was Jane Wood, from England. She was the seventh of eight children and received a primary education in the village school before teaching in Cobourg for two years. After graduating as a nurse in 1899 from the Brooklyn Training School for Nurses, she went to work in a small hospital in Staten Island, New York, United States. In 1900, she nursed the journalist

whilst he was hospitalized with

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

. They married on January 31, 1901.

Expedition

Following her husband's ill-fated expedition to Labrador in 1903, Hubbard asked a surviving member of the party, Dillon Wallace, to record the experience as a memorial to her husband. His published book, ''Lure of the Labrador Wild'' was a commercial success in America, but Hubbard was not satisfied, coming to believe that Wallace was responsible for the death of her husband, and that her husband's reputation had been blemished by Wallace's book. In 1905, whilst Wallace was planning to mount a new expedition to complete the goal of 1903, Hubbard put together a team of her own to do the same thing in a bid to clear her husband's name. Consisting of the same George Elson who had been on the earlier expedition, along with two Cree Indians who had taken part in the unsuccessful rescue attempt in 1903, Hubbards team left Northwest River on June 27, the same day as the Wallace expedition. The press branded it a race and it received considerable attention in the news. The two parties never communicated before or during the expedition. The 576 mile trip was an efficient, well organised trek through the Labrador wilderness, completed on schedule, despite weather delays at the beginning of August when they reached the watershed at

Lake Michikamau Michikamau Lake, in Labrador, Canada, was absorbed into Smallwood Reservoir upon the completion of the Churchill Falls Generating Station in 1974. The lake makes up the largest part of the eastern section of the reservoir, while Lobstick Lake, als ...

. The expedition arrived at the George River post on

Ungava Bay Ungava Bay (french: baie d'Ungava, ; iu, ᐅᖓᕙ ᑲᖏᖅᓗᒃ/) is a bay in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik (far northern Quebec) from Baffin Island. Although not geographically apparent, it is considered to be a marginal sea of the ...

on 29 August, some seven weeks before Wallace. In 43 days of travelling, the Hubbard expedition confirmed that the Nascaupee, Seal Lake and Lake Michikamau were in the same drainage basin, and that the Northwest River and the Nascaupee were in fact the same. In addition, Hubbard made extensive notes on the topography, geology, flora and fauna of this unknown wilderness. She named the source of the George River, Lake Hubbard after her husband. Her book, ''A Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador'', and her diaries provide descriptions of her encounters with the

Naskapi The Naskapi (Nascapi, Naskapee, Nascapee) are an Indigenous people of the Subarctic native to the historical country St'aschinuw (ᒋᑦ ᐊᔅᒋᓄᐤ, meaning 'our nclusiveland'), which is located in northern Quebec and Labrador, neighb ...

and Montagnais Indians, and of the last great herds of Labrador's caribou.

Later life

After the trip Hubbard carried out a lecture tour of England, where, in 1908, she met and married Harold Ellis, a businessman and the son of John Ellis, MP and his wife

Maria Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

. The couple lived at Wrea Head Hall at first, but in 1913, they purchased

The Wabe The Wabe is an architecturally eclectic detached house on Redington Road, Hampstead, London, built in 1902–1903 for the academic and mathematician William Garnett. It was subsequently the home of the Canadian explorer Mina Hubbard and her ...

, a large detached house in Hampstead, London, from its designer and original owner, the academic and mathematician William Garnett. Together they had three children, but divorced in 1926. She returned to Canada in 1936 to accompany George Elson on a canoe trip down the Moose River in northern Ontario. Hubbard died in

Coulsdon Coulsdon (, traditionally pronounced ) is a town in south London, England, within the London Borough of Croydon, in the ceremonial county of Greater London since 1965. Prior to this it was part of the historic county of Surrey. History The loc ...

, United Kingdom, in 1956 at the age of 86, when she was hit by a train while crossing railway tracks. Mina Benson Hubbard Ellis was designated a National Historic Person in 2018.Government of Canada Announces New National Historic Designations
Parks Canada news release, January 12, 2018

Bibliography

''Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador''
available at

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

References

External links

Biography
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The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available f ...

* * *
Audio Biography
Radio Canada : Forgotten remarkable (French)
"First Lady of Labrador" by Matthew Jachson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbard, Mina Benson Canadian explorers 20th-century Canadian women writers History of Newfoundland and Labrador Explorers of Canada 1870 births 1956 deaths Female explorers Canadian people of Irish descent Canadian people of English descent People from Northumberland County, Ontario Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Canadian nurses Women nurses