After his parents divorce, his mother took him and his younger sister Mary Ruth to New York City to further their education. To earn a living, she ran a boarding house, where Edwin got to know his future wife Minnie Bell Sharp of Woodstock, New Brunswick, a piano and singing student, who was one of his mother's tenants. Edwin attended Trinity School and after leaving school he worked in a law office. In the evenings he took art classes at the Art Students League of New York. He graduated from art school at the age of eighteen and provided 110 illustrations for The Handbook of the Birds of Eastern North America. His interest in birds continued when he immigrated to Canada and a visitor remarked on his relationship with the birds around his bungalow in Upper Woodstock. He would whistle bird-calls and the birds would flutter around him and sometimes land on his head.
Canoe-building
In 1887, Edwin and his sister visited Minnie's family at their home in Woodstock, New Brunswick. Adney intended to spend a month in Woodstock preparing for the entry examination for Columbia University. While in Woodstock, he met Peter Jo, a Wolastoqiyik canoe-builder. He became interested in the language and culture and with Joseph's help, he built his first canoe, spending twenty months in Woodstock. In 1890, he wrote an article on canoe-building for a Harper's Young People supplement. He was credited with saving the art of birchbark canoe construction. He built more than 100 models of different types, which are now housed at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia.
Writer and illustrator
From 1890 onwards, Adney earned his reputation as a writer and illustrator for numerous magazine's including Harper's Weekly, Collier's Weekly, Harper's Young People, Saint Nicholas, Outing, and Our Animal Friends. He authored the book, The Klondike Stampede about the Klondike Gold Rush. His photos of the Klondike Gold rush c. 1899 are available online via the McCord Museum. He occasionally wrote poetry: From out the misty hill A cry that sends a chill Then all again is still. Hark! the hunter starts! The mighty stillness parts Tender, low, it thrills Yet resonant it fills The everlasting hills! EDWIN TAPPAN ADNEY
Klondike Gold Rush
He was one of the first photojournalists to pass safely through British Columbia. As a writer for Harper's Weekly, he was sent with his camera to the Yukon from 1897 to 1898. His classic illustrated book concerns his experiences in the Yukon, of which numerous editions have been printed. He returned there to briefly report on the Nome Gold Rush in 1900. He retired first to Montreal, then to New Brunswick, the place where his wife was born. He learned the Maliseet language of the native Canadians of New Brunswick.
Marriage
Adney married Minnie Sharp on September 12, 1899 at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church in Woodstock, New Brunswick. They had one child, Francis Glenn Adney, born on July 9, 1902, in Woodstock, who became a minor jazz pianist and band leader in the United States. Both eccentric personalities, the couple lived together for only about a quarter of their 38-year marriage.
The lobby of the Hudson's Bay Company store on the corner of Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard in Winnipeg, Manitoba was decorated with immense murals depicting scenes of the Company's early history by Edward Tappan Adney and Adam Sheriff Scott. Although one mural was removed, The Pioneer at Fort Garry remains to this day. His photos of rural Ontario are available online via the McCord Museum. He then moved to Montreal, Quebec 1920–33 where he created heraldic art, worked for the Museum of McGill University as a consultant on aboriginal lore, and consulted to McCord Museum on canoes. He is buried in the Upper Woodstock Cemetery, Woodstock, New Brunswick with his wife.
