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Fred Ryckman was born in eastern Canada in 1888. As a youth he moved with his family to the Kootenay region of British Columbia where he remained for the rest of his life, residing first in Creston then in Cranbrook. In 1912 Ryckman began his career with the Department of Indian Affairs serving as a constable in that department. During this period he also served in the position of Indian Farm Instructor. In 1931 Ryckman was promoted to the position of Indian Agent, a post he was to hold until his death in 1935. During the twenty-three years of his employment with the Department of Indian Affairs, Ryckman took an active interest in the language and culture of the people with whom he was working, a fact which is reflected in his papers.

Franz Boas was a German-born American anthropologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the founder of the relativistic, culture-centred school of American anthropology that became dominant in the 20th century. During his tenure at Columbia University in New York City (1899–1942), he developed one of the foremost departments of anthropology in the United States. Boas was a specialist in North American First Nations cultures and languages, but he was, in addition, the organizer of a profession and the great teacher of a number of scientists who developed anthropology in the United States. Boas undertook a year-long scientific expedition to Baffin Island in 1883–84. In 1886, on his way back from a visit to the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw) and other Indigenous tribes of British Columbia (which became a lifelong study), he stopped in New York City and decided to stay. Boas’ first teaching position was at the newly founded Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts) in 1889. Next, he spent a period in Chicago, where he assisted in the preparation of the anthropological exhibitions at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and held a post at the Field Museum of Natural History. In 1896 he became lecturer in physical anthropology and in 1899 professor of anthropology at Columbia University. From 1896 to 1905 he was also curator of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; in that capacity he directed and edited the reports submitted by the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, an investigation of the relationships between the Indigenous peoples of Siberia and of North America.

Francis Henry (Frank) Burnett was born in Peterhead, Aberdeenshire, Scotland on February 15, 1852. His parents were Peter Burnett and Henrietta Bond. His father was a whaler captain. Frank moved to Liverpool at an early age to attend the Merchant Taylor's Grammar School, planning for a career in business, but at age 14 he chose to apprentice on a sailing vessel. During his time as a sailor he travelled as far as Egypt and South Africa. Around 1870 he immigrated to Montreal, Canada. There he tried his hand at various enterprises; married his first wife, Henrietta Cooke in 1878; moved across the country to Manitoba in 1880; and to Vancouver c. 1895. He began making trips to the South Pacific in 1895. He was able to retire in 1901, at which time he outfitted a schooner, the Laurel, which he used to take another trip to the Pacific, collecting artifacts along the way. This 1902 trip is described in Burnett's first book "Through Tropic Seas" (1910). He also wrote "Through Polynesia and Papua" (1911), "Summer Isles of Eden" (1923) and "The Wreck of the Tropic Bird and Other Sea Stories" (1926). In 1912, and again in 1929, he made a small donation of objects to the City Museum (now the Vancouver Museum). From 1920-1927 he travelled in South America and British Columbia, where he also collected artifacts. In 1917 his first wife died; in 1923 he married his second wife, Anne Cooke. On July 25, 1927 he donated most of his collection to the University of British Columbia, where it was initially housed in a room on the first floor of the library. It was installed by Frank and his daughter Nina. (The collection also included a group of Inuit objects collected by Ian M. Mackinnon during three years he spent in the Coppermine River area of the N.W.T.) By 1935, the "Burnett Collection" (as well as several other artifacts held by the University) had been recorded in a booklet titled "The University of British Columbia Catalogue of Ethnographic Specimens". The listed objects became the founding collection of the UBC Museum of Anthropology. In recognition of his generosity, the University bestowed on him an honourary Doctor of Laws degree in November, 1929. Burnett died suddenly on February 20, 1930, while addressing the Canadian Authors’ Association, at the Hotel Vancouver.

Ewen MacLeod was born in Scotland in 1881 and immigrated to Canada around 1903. After getting married in 1911 and working for the BC Provincial Police in Clayoquot, BC, he moved with his family to Lytton, BC in 1915 to work as a Farm Instructor and Indian Constable. Around 1920 he was promoted to Indian Agent for the Lytton area, a post he occupied until his death in a car accident on September 27, 1931.

Born Evelyn Sheasgreen, Evelyn Goddard was a young teacher in Kitzegukla, BC in the early 1920s.

Lieutenant Colonel Eric Parker was born on June 16, 1896, in London, England. He was a British military Commander with the Indian government who led a little known expedition of approximately 200 Punjabi soldiers from Calcutta to Tibet in November 1921. In addition, Lt. Col. Parker conducted basic and advanced infantry training of Tibetan soldiers from January to March 1923 at the request of the Tibetan military. During his military career, Lt. Col. Parker corresponded with British diplomat, Sir Charles Bell, and various members of the Tibetan government, including the 13th Dalai Lama.

On January 2, 1923, Lt. Col Parker married in Calcutta and, with his wife, travelled back to Tibet on horseback where his training of Tibetan soldiers would begin. After his initial British disapproval, Lt. Col. Parker became accepting of the Tibetan culture and during this period of his life learned to speak in Tibetan, Urdu, Tamil, and Punjabi. The Parkers adapted to Tibet, living in both Yutang and Ganze. After Lt. Col. Parker was released from the military, the couple tried to stay on and establish a trading station, but lasted only one year. During their stay in Tibet the Parkers collected numerous objects, letters, and photographs that provide rare documentation of this period in Tibet’s history (i.e., before the Chinese invasion in 1950). Lt. Col. Parker died in 1988.

Lt. Col. Parker was in the Indian military at a significant time in Tibetan history. From 1918-1921, evidence suggests the Dalai Lama continued to forge closer ties to the British. Since the Simla Convention in 1914, Britain and Tibet had agreed to Chinese ‘suzerainty’ over Tibet, but China refused to ratify the pact and agree to the territorial divisions established. In 1918, fighting broke out between British-trained Tibetan troops and the Chinese, and was later followed by British attempts to mediate and discuss a Tibetan autonomy settlement. In 1920 to 1921, Sir Charles Bell went to Lhasa to urge better relations between Tibet and Britain. Despite Tibetan reluctance to accept further British influence, Charles Bell suggested increasing military aid to Tibet, and it was in 1923 that Lt. Col. Parker arrived to train the soldiers. In 1924-25, pressure from the monks caused the Dalai Lama to dismiss his British-trained officers. Tibetan independence lasted until the overthrow of the Republic of China by the Communists in 1949, and the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

In 2005, photographs and textual records, along with several objects, were donated to the Museum of Anthropology by Lt. Col. Parker’s daughter, Mrs. Mary Noble. Lt. Col. Parker’s grandson, Father Harry Donald, provided valuable contextual information and is currently preparing to write a history of his grandfather’s time in Tibet.

Emma Hunt (Maxwalaogwa) (nee Billy) was an instructor in the teaching of Kwagulth and Nuu-chah-nulth culture. She was married to the late Chief Thomas Hunt. Emma was the daughter of a great Mowachaht Chief and Shaman, Dr. Billy, from the Mowachaht of Yuquot (Friendly Cove) on the west coast of Vancouver Island. .

Ellen May Neel was the niece of Mungo Martin and granddaughter of Charlie James, and she began drawing and painting very early in life, at age 12. Ellen Neel's father was Charles Newman who in turn was the son of James Newman. She attended St. Michael's Residential School in Alert Bay and learned outside of school how to carve from her grandfather, Charlie James. Ellen married Ted Neel and had a large family with him. In 1946, Ellen had to solely support the family by carving full-time, since Ted Neel suffered a serious stroke which impaired his health for life. Thus, her husband dealt with the business side of her work, while Ellen carved and painted. She worked on a number of restoration projects (including some at UBC) and commision projects as well. In 1950, she was elected onto the board of the Vancouver Centre Liberal Association--a support group for one of Canada's strongest political parties-- she became the first native woman to hold office. Ellen Neel produced works for the tourist trade and sold things through Totem Art Studios in Stanley Park. All the while Ellen worked, she taught her children her skills; at the age of 12, Dave Neel, the oldest son, was as good a carver as his mother, but in 1961 he died in a car accident in Washington State, and both Ellen and her husband never recovered from the pain. Her Kwakwaka'wakw name was Kakaso'las, which means "people come from faraway to seek her advice".

Elizabeth Lominska Johnson was born in Ossining, New York in 1941. In 1963, she received a B.A. in Psychology from Bucknell University. After receiving this degree she travelled in Europe for a year. In 1965 she married Graham Johnson. In 1967, she received a M.A. in Anthropology from Cornell University. Subsequently Johnson moved to Hong Kong where she lived from 1968 to 1971. Johnson continued to study at Cornell and in 1976 she received a Ph.D. in Anthropology upon completion of her dissertation, "Households and Lineages in an Urban Chinese Village," which is a study of the effects of rapid urbanization upon kinship groups in a two-lineage Hakka village.

In 1974 and 1975 Elizabeth Lominska Johnson was engaged as the "Coordinator, China Resources Project," at the University of British Columbia (UBC). In this position she acted as a liaison between local schools and researchers focusing on China at UBC. In 1977, she was employed as a museum cataloguer on a part-time basis both by MacMillan Bloedel, and by the Museum of Anthropology (MOA). From 1978 to 1979, she was employed as the Public Programmes Coordinator by the Vancouver Museum and Planetarium Association, where she developed, implemented and supervised new courses, social events, and lectures. Since March 1979, she has been an employee of the Museum of Anthropology. Until August 1986, she was Curator of Collections. In this position Johnson was responsible for the intellectual and administrative control of artifacts in the museum’s collection through registration, conservation, loan procedures; development of policy and procedures, the planning a new textile storage system, providing collections information to the public and the creation of publications relating to the collection.

Since August of 1986, she held the position of Curator of Ethnology. Several of her responsibilities continued to the new position, including curatorial activities and development of policies and procedures. New responsibilities included: teaching the course "Museum Principles and Methods" in Anthropology as well as occasional courses in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the maintenance of collections documentation, maintenance and development of museum archives, managing public access to archives and supervising archival workers, appraising artifacts where required for accessioning or income tax receipts, maintaining financial records on the collections curating and coordinating exhibits, as well as taking on curatorial initiatives to develop and promote the East Asian collections in specific and the world-wide textile collection in general. In 1988, the responsibility for the MOA Archives was transferred to Johnson from Audrey Shane. Subsequently, in 1999 responsibility for the archives was transferred to the newly hired museum archivist.

Johnson’s work however was not restricted to the tasks required by her various positions at the museum. Johnson has also published works suitable for academic, museum and public audiences. These publications include exhibit catalogues, articles and book reviews. She has been active in community and professional associations, including: the Canadian Museums Association; the British Columbia Museums Association; the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch; the Association for Asian Studies; the Archives Association of British Columbia; the Textile Society of Hong Kong; and the Canadian Asian Studies Association. She has regularly attended and participated in conferences, where she has presented papers on such diverse topics as Chinese ethnology, textile conservation, museum studies, archives, the development of curatorial partnerships, visible storage, textiles, repatriation, and Cantonese opera. Apart from her involvement with conferences Johnson has also been an active participant in the academic and museum communities at an international level. Beginning in 1998, she was a grant application assessor for the University Grants Committee in Hong Kong. In the same year she also took on work as an external examiner for the Department of Anthropology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong as well as taking on a position as an advisor to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Johnson was also highly involved in the local Vancouver community. From 1983 to 1995 she was a member of the Chinatown Historic Area Planning Committee in Vancouver. Beginning in 1998, she was also a member of the Vancouver Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives Committee. In the fall of 2006 Johnson officially retired, though she continues to maintain her relationship with the Museum of Anthropology in a research capacity.

Edyth McClure was the wife of the former United Church missionary, Rev. Basil Hartley, who served in the Kitimat area.