Curing Mind and Body in the Heart of the Canadian Rockies: Empire, Sexual Scandal and the Reclamation of Masculinity, 1880s-1920s

Based on a reading of published writings and a series of private letters and medical records, this article explores the life and career of the mountaineer Sir James Outram (1864-1925) in order to argue for a new, more psychologically oriented conceptualisation of the relationship between empire, masculinity and male sexuality. At its core is an attempt to understand both the sexual transgressions that forced Outram to flee Britain for Canada in 1900 and the impact that his travels across the Atlantic and his physical activities in the Rocky Mountains had on his gender and sexual subjectivities. As an intervention into the history of same-sex desire and behaviour in Britain and the Empire, this piece explores Outram's complicated relationship to the predominant sexual categories of the day and the masculine ideals that held considerable sway in the late imperial period. It also documents the Outram family's interactions with members of the emerging psychiatric profession. © Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.