Hope Johnson
1916 - 2010
Born in Sardis, British Columbia, Hope Johnson grew up in Victoria and attended Victoria College; she later worked as a stenographer for the British Columbia Department of Education. During World War II, she joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (1941) and served in B.C., Quebec, and Ontario; achieving the rank of First Lieutenant, she worked as an army instructor in Ottawa and accepted a post at the then-new Suffield Experimental Station (1943).
After moving to Alberta (1945), Johnson eventually settled in Redcliff, where she studied natural history, geology, and paleontology, and enlisted the aid of visiting paleontologists to identify and draw fossils. Working primarily in oil, pen and ink, and watercolour, she studied art at the Faculty of Extension of the University of Alberta and taught for the Ralston Art Club (1952 – 1974). Combining her interests in art and paleontology, Johnson drafted all the drawings for A Guide to Alberta Vertebrate Fossils from the Age of Dinosaurs (Royal Alberta Museum, 1973), co-wrote Down the Years at Elkwater (Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, 1981), created the art and text for Prairie Plants of Southeast Alberta (South East Alberta Regional Planning Commission, 1982), and drew Guide to Common Vertebrate Fossils from the Cretaceous of Alberta (Alberta Palaeontological Society, 2009). She also served as the Curator of Dinosaur Provincial Park (1978 – 1981), and taught art at Medicine Hat’s Veiner Centre during the 1980s and 1990s.
Johnson participated in many exhibitions of the Ralston Art Club, and of the Medicine Hat Art Club of which she was also vice-president (1984 – 1985). She staged a solo show at the Royal Alberta Museum (1978). The permanent collections of the City of Medicine Hat and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts preserve select works by Johnson.
In addition to joining the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology (1963), Johnson was a board member of the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery (1967 – 1980), and president of the Historical Society of Medicine Hat and District (1976 – 1979). The Federation of Alberta Naturalists granted her its Loran Goulden Lifetime Accomplishment Award (1997), and the Alberta Palaeontological Society made her a lifetime member (1998). To recognise Johnson for her contributions to public education in paleontology and Alberta foliage, the University of Lethbridge granted her an honorary doctorate (1981); that same year, the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation named her among fifty women to have made outstanding contributions to the province.
Johnson died on August 24, 2010.
After moving to Alberta (1945), Johnson eventually settled in Redcliff, where she studied natural history, geology, and paleontology, and enlisted the aid of visiting paleontologists to identify and draw fossils. Working primarily in oil, pen and ink, and watercolour, she studied art at the Faculty of Extension of the University of Alberta and taught for the Ralston Art Club (1952 – 1974). Combining her interests in art and paleontology, Johnson drafted all the drawings for A Guide to Alberta Vertebrate Fossils from the Age of Dinosaurs (Royal Alberta Museum, 1973), co-wrote Down the Years at Elkwater (Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, 1981), created the art and text for Prairie Plants of Southeast Alberta (South East Alberta Regional Planning Commission, 1982), and drew Guide to Common Vertebrate Fossils from the Cretaceous of Alberta (Alberta Palaeontological Society, 2009). She also served as the Curator of Dinosaur Provincial Park (1978 – 1981), and taught art at Medicine Hat’s Veiner Centre during the 1980s and 1990s.
Johnson participated in many exhibitions of the Ralston Art Club, and of the Medicine Hat Art Club of which she was also vice-president (1984 – 1985). She staged a solo show at the Royal Alberta Museum (1978). The permanent collections of the City of Medicine Hat and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts preserve select works by Johnson.
In addition to joining the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology (1963), Johnson was a board member of the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery (1967 – 1980), and president of the Historical Society of Medicine Hat and District (1976 – 1979). The Federation of Alberta Naturalists granted her its Loran Goulden Lifetime Accomplishment Award (1997), and the Alberta Palaeontological Society made her a lifetime member (1998). To recognise Johnson for her contributions to public education in paleontology and Alberta foliage, the University of Lethbridge granted her an honorary doctorate (1981); that same year, the Alberta Historical Resources Foundation named her among fifty women to have made outstanding contributions to the province.
Johnson died on August 24, 2010.