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Hay River began as a Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) trading post in 1868. It remained a trading post until 1939 when the beginnings of a settlement were established on Vale Island. Hay River became an Administration District on April 21, 1949 and a Municipal District on June 25, 1953. On July 19, 1963, Hay River obtained town status.

Chuck Hayward was an outfitter in the Little Dal area.

June Helm was born on September 13, 1924 in Twin Falls, Idaho to Julia Frances (nee Dixon) and William Jennings Helm. Her family moved to Kansas City in 1930 where she attended public and high school. She graduated from high school in 1941 and attended the University of Kansas City until 1942 when she transferred to the University of Chicago. In 1945, Helm married Richard S. "Scotty" MacNeish, an archaeologist.

In 1949, Helm and MacNeish moved to Ottawa where he held an appointment at the National Museum of Canada. During his summer archaeological survey of the Mackenzie River, MacNeish learned that the small community of Jean Marie River required volunteer teachers. In the summer of 1951, June Helm and fellow graduate student, Teresa Carterette went to Jean Marie River as volunteer teachers, however, Helm also started to compile ethnographic field data at this time, which became the basis of her PhD dissertation. She received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 1958. In 1959, the Tlicho (Dogrib) people became the focus of Helm's fieldwork, which entailed ten trips to the Northwest Territories between 1959-1979. Ultimately, she edited the Subarctic Vol. 6 of the Handbook of North American Indians that was published by the Smithsonian Institute in 1981 and wrote several books, monographs, articles and chapters about her fieldwork in the Northwest Territories with the Dene. In the 1970s, she served as an expert witness and land claims researcher for the Indian Brotherhood (Dene Nation), and as a consultant to the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry.

During the years that Helm lived in Canada, she was a sessional lecturer at Carleton University in Ottawa (1949-1959) and at the University of Manitoba (1953). After she and MacNeish divorced in 1958, she became a professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology of the University of Iowa in 1960. In 1968, she married architect Pierce King. In 1969, the University of Iowa established the Department of Anthropology, where Helm, at intervals, served as department chair. Between 1993-1996, she chaired the American Indian and Native Studies Program. She was also the president of the American Anthropological Association (1985-1987), served as editor of American Ethnological Society publications (1964-1968), was president of the Central States Anthropological Society (1970-1971), chaired Section H of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1978), was associate editor of American Ethnologist (1979-1981) and was president of the American Ethnological Society (1982-1983). She was also elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1994. June Helm was professor emerita at the University of Iowa, having retired in December 1999 after 40 years of teaching. June Helm died on February 5, 2004.

Mr. Hemstock was born in Hanna, Alberta in 1921. After graduating from the University of Alberta with a BSc in Mining Engineering in 1943, Alex Hemstock began working for Imperial Oil on the Canol project in Norman Wells. In 1945 Alex Hemstock met Emily Keeley, who was also working in Norman Wells for Imperial Oil at the time. They were married soon after. As an employee of Imperial Oil, Alex Hemstock was tasked with doing an assessment of the CANOL infrastructure in 1944 when the project was shut down. Following his time on the Canol project, Alex Hemstock returned to the University of Alberta and obtained a MSc in Soil Mechanics in 1947, and continued to do work related to geology and environmental studies for the remainder of his life. He passed away in 2010 in Calgary, Alberta.

David Henry worked as a welder and boilermaker for the Imperial Oil Company on the oil drilling efforts in the Norman Wells region during the early 1920s. He lived in High River before World War I. He was injured in a streetcar accident and died in an Edmonton hospital in 1925. His daughter, Davina Henry was born on April 12, 1914 and lived in Yellowknife from 1950 to 1968. She lived in a home overlooking Back Bay and worked in a variety of businesses including: Yellowknife Bakery, Hodgson Store, Macara's Laundry at Giant Mine, and Weaver and Devore's. She retired to southern Canada and currently lives in Red Deer, Alberta.

The Dawson City Museum and Historical Society, which operates a museum in Dawson City, sponsored a conference dedicated to the discussion of heritage and culture related issues in northern regions. The planning, which was stimulated by the desire to know how other museums and institutions were handling certain situations, began in 1983. A Planning Committee was struck with regional representation. The conference focused on preservation and access and consisted of numerous discussion and dialogue groups. There were over 130 participants.

Initially, William Hoare left Ottawa for Herschel Island to act for the Anglican Church as a missionary. He returned after five years and married Catherine Cowan, who had been training to be a nurse in Ottawa. In 1920 they traveled to Aklavik, where they were to establish an Anglican mission. The couple remained in the north until 1931, with William Hoare eventually working for the Government of the Northwest Territories and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P.) until 1931, when they returned to Ottawa.

Stuart (Stu) Milton Hodgson (April 1, 1924-December 18, 2015) was born in Vancouver, British Columbia to Allen Jay and Hermoine Mary Louise Hodgson (Allen). He attended Walter Moberly Elementary School from 1930 to 1938, then John Oliver Secondary School from 1938 to 1940. At age 16, he left school to work at the Thompson & Clark Plywood Plant, later known as Vancouver Plywoods.

While Hodgson was working in the lumber industry, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He decided to sign up for military service, and on July 2, 1942, reported for duty with the Royal Canadian Navy. The majority of his service was spent as an anti-aircraft gunner, running convoys of merchant vessels between Newfoundland and the British isles, patrolling routes around the United Kingdom, and as part of the convoy on the Murmansk run to deliver war materials to the Soviet Union.

After the war he returned to Vancouver Plywoods. In 1948, he helped organize the Vancouver chapter of the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) union. His involvement began whilst convincing his coworkers to remain loyal to the IWA and not join a communist splinter union. He went to work for the Vancouver local, and was quickly promoted to Financial Secretary in 1949, and in 1951, joined the Canadian Congress of Labour Executive Council.

One of the secretaries hired at the Vancouver chapter of IWA was Pearl Kereliuk, who became Stuart’s wife on July 28, 1951. They were married at St. George United Church in South Vancouver. They had two children, Eugene Allen and Lynne Mary.

In May 1964, Hodgson was appointed to the Territorial Council, which governed the Northwest Territories from Ottawa. He was appointed Deputy Commissioner in 1965, then appointed Commissioner of the Northwest Territories on March 2, 1967, and served until April 6, 1979.

Stuart Hodgson and his staff were tasked with “bringing the government to the people” on recommendation of the Carruthers Commission’s report of 1966 to the federal government. On September 18, 1967, with a small staff and their families, Stuart Hodgson set about the task of creating the territorial government in Yellowknife. Responsibilities transferred to the fledgling government from the federal operations were education, small business, public works, social services and local government. Shortly after their arrival, the 35th session of the Northwest Territories Council was the first legislative session held entirely in Yellowknife.

Commissioner Hodgson was nicknamed Umingmak, or muskox, by the Inuit, for his larger than life presence (and stature, at six foot three inches). He insisted upon yearly visits to every community in the territory, which at the time included what is now Nunavut. He felt it imperative to bring the government to the people, and to listen to their concerns in person.

Seeing the potential for increased visibility, Hodgson continually invited dignitaries, politicians and journalists north to see the Northwest Territories in person. He spearheaded a tourism campaign entitled Travel Arctic, which included the creation of the iconic three-legged polar bear.

Starting with Princess Alexandra in 1967, members of the Royal Family have consistently visited the NWT in their trips to Canada.

Commissioner Hodgson spent a great deal of effort coordinating NWT Centennial celebrations in 1970, a year which saw visits from Prime Minister Elliott Trudeau, Governor General Roland Michener and his wife Norah, as well as Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and their son and daughter Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Hodgson also helped to found the Arctic Winter Games, first held in Yellowknife in 1970 as an international circumpolar event for athletes.

While Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, he was appointed to Officer of the Order of Canada on December 18, 1970, for his services in labour relations and government. He was also awarded the Knight of Grace of St. John of Jerusalem in November 1971. Stuart’s wife Pearl Hodgson was appointed to Member of the Order of Canada on December 17, 1973 for her voluntary service in community programs in the Northwest Territories. Stuart was presented with the public service’s Outstanding Achievement Award in 1976, and was made an honorary doctorate of laws by the University of Calgary in 1977.

After his tenure as Commissioner, Stuart was Canadian co-chair of the US-Canadian International Joint Commission from 1979 to 1981. Following that, he moved back to his home province of British Columbia, recruited by then-Premier William R. Bennett to run BC Ferries. He was appointed chairman and CEO of BC Transit in 1985, until his retirement in 1992.

Stuart was appointed a citizenship judge in British Columbia in December 1997 and served until 2005. He received the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal in June 2012. Stuart passed away on December 18, 2015 in Vancouver, British Columbia at the age of 91.

The photographs were taken by Richard E. Howell, a British subject who left England to accept a position with the Hudson’s Bay Company. His employment sent him to Tulita (Fort Norman). From there he spent time in a few other NWT communities.

Robert (Bob) Howren, a native of Georgia, received his BA from Wake Forest in 1950 and MA from the University of Connecticut in 1952 (both in English), and his PhD from Indiana University in 1958 (in English linguistics). Following a teaching term at Wake Forest, he moved to the University of Iowa in 1962, where he chaired the Interdepartmental Program in Linguistics 1965-70 and was the founding chair of the Department of Linguistics 1970-75. In the summer of 1965 Howren did a summer season of fieldwork in Fort Rae (Behchokǫ̀), following up with research assistant Charles Pyle in 1967. During the 1960's he also served as a language-training consultant to the Peace Corps in Malaya and was a Fulbright Lecturer in English at the University of Mandalay in Burma. He came to Chapel Hill in 1976, where he chaired the Dept. of Linguistics and Non-Western Languages 1976-81, retiring in 1994. While his research interests included American English dialects and the history of English, his primary specialization was phonology, with concentration on the Northeastern Athapaskan languages of the Canadian Northwest. He conducted fieldwork in these languages, most notably Tłı̨chǫ, some in collaboration with his second wife, Phyllis. This work was supported by the National Museum of Canada, among other funders. Following his retirement, he began a new project on Yucatec Maya, carrying out fieldwork in the vicinity of Xocen, Mexico and delivering a paper on the topic at a conference in Guadalajara. Robert R. Howren, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, died on September 5, 1997, at the age of 68.

Mildred Josephine Young was born in Toronto in 1924. A schoolteacher, at age 20 she went to the Yukon, and later Moose Factory, Ontario and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories at the age of 23 in 1947. She left Yellowknife for Southern Ontario in 1950. She later became a school inspector (classroom consultant), living in Winisk, Ontario where she met her husband George Hubbert. Millie Hubbert travelled to Fort Good Hope in 1969. Ms. Hubbert published three books in the 1990s, "Since the Day I Was Born", about her life growing up in depression-era Toronto and "Into Canada's North: Because It Was There", recalling her adventures teaching in the North. The third book, recalling her time in Winisk, was entitled "Winisk: On the Shore of Hudson Bay". The manuscript was completed shortly before her passing in March, 1997.

The Hudson's Bay Company was proclaimed by royal charter in 1670. Originally, the company had exclusive trading rights in Rupert's Land, the area traversed by rivers flowing into the Hudson Bay. In 1821, a merger with the North West Company extended Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly to the North-West Territory. Shareholders elected a London based governor and committee which set policy for Rupert's Land. A bay area governor was then appointed and each trading post was commanded by a chief factor (trader) and a council of officers. The company headquarters was based in London, England until 1970 when it was moved to Winnipeg.

During World War II, Dr. Norris Hunt flew Spitfires but was shot down and captured and was a prisoner of war for three years.
He had a private practice in Oakville, Ontario before moving to the Northwest Territories in 1968. Dr. Hunt, his wife and three teenage children moved to Inuvik after reading an advertisement in the C.M.A. Journal for physicians needed in the Arctic and was hired by the Department of Health for a one year term. His wife was a physiotherapist and she became the first part-time physiotherapist in the Inuvik Hospital, also helping to run the local Girl Guides troop. The family carried on with their interest in cross country skiing. While in Inuvik he had the opportunity to fly a Cessna 150 from time to time. When visiting nursing stations in the area there was often room for another passenger in the airplanes, so his family members took turns accompanying him. Dr. Hunt always had an interest in photography and acquired a Pentax Spotmatic camera for his journey to the North.

Dr. Terrance "Terry" Hunt, L.D.S., D.D.S., R.C.S., Eng., was born in England and trained as a dentist. He moved to Canada in 1946 and spent the next two years working for the Grenfell Mission in Labrador. In 1948, he began working for the Department of Health and Welfare and was to remain in their employ until his return to England in 1956. Between 1948 and 1951, he was based in Edmonton and made regular trips into northern communities to provide dental treatment. In 1951, he established a permanent clinic in Aklavik, becoming the first resident dentist in the Northwest Territories. Dr. Hunt's dental practice covered the communities of Aklavik, Tuktoyaktuk, Fort Smith, Fort Resolution, Fort Rae, Wrigley, Fort McPherson, Coppermine, Fort Simpson and Old Crow (Yukon Territory). In 1956, Dr. Hunt returned to England to join his fathers' dental practice in Aldershot. He died in 1975.

W. Bruce Hunter was born in Brockville, Ontario in 1915. In 1918, he moved to Mort Lake, Saskatchewan with his family where he finished his schooling. He first came to the north in 1935, working at a variety of jobs. In 1937, he began working for the Northern Transportation Company Ltd. (NTCL) and continued to work for NTCL until his retirement in 1980. He held various positions during these years beginning as a deckhand in 1937, to Assistant General Manager in 1948, Manager in 1960 and Vice President of Operations in 1971. In 1942, Mr. Hunter was seconded from NTCL to work on the Manhattan Project. He ensured that all materials that were needed for the Eldorado mines made it from Fort Norman to Great Bear Lake. In 1950-1951, as Assistant General Manager, he oversaw the portage of the "Radium Franklin" at Bear River.

George Hunter was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1921. In 1937 at the age of 16, he bought his first camera to record his trip to London, England for the coronation of King George VI. He began selling his first photographs the next year. From 1945-1950 he worked for the National Film Board's Still Division. In 1950, he went into business for himself, buying a Piper Clipper airplane for aerial photographs. He promoted himself as a corporate, industrial and aerial photographer.

George Hunter's work in the north consisted of primarily mining industry photography during the 1950s. During this time he also gained an international reputation, carrying out assignments for Time, Fortune and National Geographic magazines. In 1977 he was one of the first photographers elected to the Royal Canadian Acadamy of Arts. His images have been used by companies around the world, as well as Canada Post for images on stamps, and the Bank of Canada, which used his images of salmon seiners on the $5 bill and oil refineries on the $10 bill for the 1972-1988 banknote series. His more recent work has focused on travel photography and fine art photography. In 2005 the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center hosted an exhibit of his work entitled "Not only gold: 1950s mining in the NWT", by the NWT Mining Heritage Society, funded in part by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

George Hunter passed away in Mississauga, Ontario on April 10, 2013.

Jack Knowles Hurst, a captain with the Royal Canadian Army Service Corps, accompanied a 'cat train' loaded with transformers for the Snare River Hydro Dam Project to study the difficulties of winter transport. The transformers were moved from Yellowknife to Snare Lakes in the 1947-1948 season. Corporal W. Mahon and Corporal D.D. Hopkinson, of the RCAF, accompanied Hurst on the 300-mile journey across Great Slave Lake.