Faith Fyles

Faith Fyles (1875–1961) was the first botanical artist with the Canadian federal government, department of agriculture (now Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada). Her work resulted in the expansion of the herbarium in Ottawa.

Biography

Fyles was born September 30, 1875, in Cowansville, Quebec, Canada. She was the seventh of ten children born to Reverend Dr. Thomas Fyles and his wife, Mary. Her father was an English Anglican clergyman and amateur entomologist who emigrated to Canada from England to establish parishes and studied and illustrated insects (entomology) as a hobby.

Fyles excelled in school. She graduated from Compton Ladies College in 1896 with honours and the medal in botany. (Compton Ladies College, an all-girls boarding school in Compton, Quebec, was later known as King's Hall.) After graduation, she spent a year studying the flora of Québec with her father and took art classes as a member of the Quebec Studio Club. Fyles then taught school for six years — one of the few occupations open to women at the time. - at Dunham Ladies College, Dunham, Quebec and then at Bishop Strachan School, Toronto. She then spent a year travelling and studying in Europe (mainly in London and Paris with study trips to Spain and Italy in 1909). This was especially important in terms of experimenting with and documenting different varieties of fruit, vegetation and seeds. Her watercolours illustrate publications such as Cultivation of the Apple in Canada and The Raspberry and its Cultivation in Canada.

In 1931, poor health forced her retirement, but she continued painting in oils, pastels and watercolours. For two decades she had entered her work in Royal Canadian Academy of Arts exhibitions that expressed an appreciation of nature's beauty, especially that of plants and flowers. She also held her own exhibitions, such as one in Ottawa in 1924 where 17 of her 36 pictures on display were sold, including one to Lady Byng, wife of the Governor General of Canada who later had Fyles paint scenes from her garden.

Fyles died in Ottawa in 1961 and is buried with her parents in section 40 of Beechwood Cemetery.

Publications

Fyles F. 1914. Systematic Botany. pp. 493–496, pl. XVIII, in Güssow, H. T., Report from the Division of Botany for the Fiscal year ending March 31, 1913. Dominion of Canada. Department of agriculture. Dominion Experimental Farms. Sessional Paper 16. Fyles F. 1915. A preliminary study of ergot of wild rice. With plate XI. Phytopath. 5(3): 186–192. Fyles, F. 1916. Black or Stem-Rust of Wheat. Poster [art work]. Circ. 12. Dominion Experimental Farms. Department of Agriculture. Dominion of Canada. Fyles F. 1920a. Wild rice. Ser. 2, Bull. 42. Dominion Experimental Farm, Dept. Agric., Ottawa. Fyles F. 1920b. Principal poisonous plants of Canada. Ser. 2, Bull. 39. Dominion Experimental Farm, Dept. Agric., Ottawa. Güssow, H. T. 1917. The Black or Stem-Rust of Wheat. A popular account of the nature, cause and prevention of grain rust. Bull. 33, n.s., Dominion Experimental Farms. Department of Agriculture. Dominion of Canada. Redhead, S. A., Corlett, M. E., Lefebvre, M. N. L. 2008. Validation and typification of the name Claviceps zizaniae. Mycotaxon 106: 303–309.