Born in 1838 in London, Frederick Whymper was the eldest son of Josiah Wood Whymper and Elizabeth Whitworth Claridge. His father Josiah Wood Whymper was a celebrated wood-engraver and artist and his younger brother Edward Whymper was a renowned alpinist who made the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865. In his youth, Frederick Whymper was a talented artist working to produce engravings for publication and having his landscapes on exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 1859 to 1861. In 1862, he travelled to Victoria; and British Columbia and to the Caribou in the following year. In 1864 he joined road builders in the area of Butte Inlet and left shortly before the Chilcotin WarMany of his early travels were by steamships. His drawings include volcanoes on Kamchatka and Alaskan glaciers. While in the far north, Whymper served on the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition and the Western Union Telegraph Expedition (1865). He spent the winter of 1866 at Nulato, Alaska with W.H. Dall and travelled up the Yukon River to Fort Yukon. When the first American flag was raised over the new territory of Alaska, he was at Fort Yukon to witness it.In November 1867, Whymper came back to England where the account of his travels, Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska, was published in 1868. In 1869, he went back to the United States, by way of New York to San Francisco and worked on the staff of the newspaper Alta California. City directories describe him as an artist and mining engineer, and in 1871 he was a founding member of the San Francisco Art Association. He returned to England and his books 'The Heroes of the Arctic and their Adventures' and 'The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril and Heroism' were published prior to his death in London on 26 November 1901 by what is listed as "failure of the heart, probably due to indigestion, arising from sedentary pursuits", in his obituary.'Mount Whymper', north of Lake Cowichan, is named in the honor of this early explorer, artist and write