The extensive papers of Andrew Taylor, a native of Scotland who came to Winnipeg in his youth, document his engineering and exploring career in the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Canadian North and northern Manitoba as well as his personal interests as a writer,indexer and antiquarian bookdealer. This large manuscript/photograph collection contains voluminous correspondence,diaries and journals, maps, drawings, survey notes, indexes, personal writings and retrospective accounts. The collection has been subdivided into the following areas: His personal life; his work with the British military in the Falkland Islands and the Antarctic during World War II ("Operation Tabarin"); his participation in "U.S. Naval Task Force 68" exploring and mapping the Queen Elizabeth Islands of the Canadian Arctic (1947-1948); his work as a prominent municipal engineer and land surveyor in Flin Flon, Manitoba (1936-1941); his work as a surveyor and cartographer in the Canadian Arctic with the Royal Canadian Engineers (1947-1952) and later as an engineering consultant in the construction of the Distant Early Warning radar line (DEW Line) from 1955 to 1957; and similar work as a surveyor for Riding Mountain and Terra Nova National Parks. Of special research value is Taylor's massive indexing project of 44,000 cards, maps and related correspondence to the British Parliamentary Papers or "Arctic Blue Books" which give place names, descriptions, and cross references to islands, waters, villages and other site locations and detailing almost 70 years of British exploration history of the Canadian Arctic from 1818 to 1878. Taylor also wrote published articles and several full length, mostly unpublished histories of various personalities associated with the exploration of the Canadian north and northern Manitoba including Dr. J.H.R.Bond (Klondike, Yukon), Charles F. Goodeve, Robert Carl Sheppard, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Phil Foster, and J.E. Preston Muddock.
