Edmund James Peck (1850-1924) joined the Church Missionary Society in 1876.  While serving at Little Whale River, 1876-1885, he learned the Eskimo and Cree languages and compiled an English/Eskimo grammar book, which went through five major editions.  Peck believed it was imperative that Christians read the scriptures.  He served in Fort George, 1885-1893, Cumberland Sound, 1894-1905 and became Superintendent of the Arctic Mission Diocese of Moosonee in 1905.

Fonds consists of manuscripts about John Horden’s life and an unpublished autobiography of E.J. Peck;  Maps of Northern Canada, the Arctic and the Hudson and James Bay;  Correspondence; printed materials concerning the Arctic; sermons; notebooks; drawings; journals; Eskimo grammars and notebooks; and photographs.

Title based on contents of fonds.

Peck’s diaries published under the title: Apostle to the Inuit: The journals and ethnographic notes of Edmund James Peck, the Baffin years, 1894-1905 / Edited by Frédéric Laugrand, Jarich Oosten, François Trudel, 2006.