Fyles, Faith, 1875-1961 : Faith Fyles was born in Cowansville, Québec, on September 30th, 1875. She was the daughter of the Reverend Dr. Thomas Fyles, an Anglican clergyman who was also an amateur botanist. She graduated from McGill University with a Batchelor of Arts degree in 1900, having studied under geneticist and botanist Professor Carrie Derick. Following graduation, she studied the flora of Québec and took art classes under Robert J. Wickenden at the Québec Studio Club, then spent the next six years teaching, and finally, took a year for travelling and studying in Europe.
Fyles' career at the Department of Agriculture began in 1909 when her family moved to Hull, Québec, and she took on work as an assistant seed analyst in the Seed Division. In 1911, she took on the job of Assistant Botanist - a position normally reserved for men - in the Botany Division at the Central Experimental Farm, where she was put in charge of the Botanic Gardens and Herbarium. During this time, she labelled trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials, identified the plants collected by, or sent to, the Botany Division, conducted research, and published her scientific findings. It's is also during this time that Fyles began producing artistic renderings of botanical specimens on her own initiative.
In 1914, Fyles made two respective collecting trips: the first to western Canada in June, and the second to Shediac, New Brunswick, in November. On her first trip, she collected nearly 800 specimens of weeds, as well as specimens of edible, indigenous plant species for the Botany Division; her search for the latter continued on her second trip, where she also took samples of ergot (a fungal disease) on wild rice. In 1915, she conducted research on this ergot, which eventually led to the identification of a new species of fungus; she scientifically described it in the Wild Rice bulletin of 1920. That same year, she also authored and illustrated a bulletin on Principal Poisonous Plants of Canada, which not only featured reproductions of her watercolours and drawings, but her photographs of specimens as well.
Fyles' skills as an artist came to be highly valued by the Department; she produced watercolour illustrations depicting individual botanical specimens with true colour and detailed scientific accuracy in a time before colour photography. These works often served to illustrate publications issued by the Department of Agriculture, such as Do you Know Your Weeds? (1916); Cultivation of the Apple in Canada (1925); Black or Stem-Rust of Wheat. A popular account of the nature, cause and prevention of grain rust (1917); and Beans (1931).
The excellence of her work may have been what led to her eventual demotion, however. In 1919, her position within the Department was examined by the Civil Service Commission, and she was reclassified as an artist rather than a botanist; she lost her title, her scientific duties, and got a cut in her pay. Although E.S. Archibald, the Director of the Experimental Farms System, was eventually able to have her salary restored and some of her scientific work reinstated, Fyles never regained the title of Assistant Botanist. She nevertheless continued her work under the new title of Junior Technical Assistant.
Fyles retired in 1931 and continued to paint and draw, focussing on nature scenes and botanicals. She participated in numerous exhibitions, including those of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. She passed away in Ottawa on October 22, 1961.
