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James Teit

Canadian anthropologist and photographer (1864-1922)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ6144072 ↗
Source-derived summary

James Alexander Teit (15 April 1864 — 30 October 1922) was an anthropologist, photographer and guide who worked with Franz Boas to study Interior Salish First Nations peoples in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He led expeditions throughout British Columbia and made many contributions towards native ethnology. He also worked with Edward Sapir of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1911.

In the later part of his life Teit worked tirelessly with the native people to preserve their human rights, as discussed by Wendy Wickwire in her work At the Bridge.

Teit was born in Lerwick, Shetland, Scotland but immigrated to Canada and married a Nlaka'pamux woman named Susanna Lucy Antko. It was through his wife that he became knowledgeable of the culture and language of the Nlaka'pamux people. Lucy died of pneumonia in 1899. After his wife's death Teit moved to the small town of Spences Bridge, British Columbia. While living there he married Josephine Morens. Together they had six children: Erik 1905, Inga 1907, Magnus 1909, Rolf 1912, Sigurd 1915, and Thorald 1919.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “James Teit” is canadian anthropologist and photographer (1864-1922). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through James, Teit and Canadian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1864, 1922, 1911, 1899—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1864-04-15. For this dossier, James, Teit and Canadian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “canadian anthropologist and photographer (1864-1922)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6144072. VIAF identifies the subject as 108925566. The Library of Congress control number is n50008218. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1864, 1922, 1911 and 1899.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “James Teit” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.