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Midwife Mary Ann

A black and white portrait photo of a woman. She wears a high neck blouse with a white neckerchief and a full, striped skirt. Her hands are resting on a cushioned arm rest, and she holds in her hand what appears to be a card.

Photograph, circa 1890
Courtesy of the Royal BC Museum and Archives (e-03871)

From a biography on Mary Ann Vine written by M. E. McVicker in 1930:

“It was her custom when called to Sooke to attend some maternity case, to pack a few articles of clothing and a lunch before setting off over the rocky hills skirting Lake Matheson where the trail led. This twenty-mile journey on foot, even today, is not one to be undertaken by a weakling. Her patient attended to and well on the road to recovery, she would retrace her steps and resume her home duties, ostensibly without fatigue. These overland trips were frought with many dangers from wild beasts, for not only wolves were plentiful, but bears and panthers roamed about…”