"To glimpse this diversity is to feel some of the meaning of being Canadian."—R. Yorke Edwards R. Yorke Edwards was a pioneer in the field of heritage interpretation in Canada. First with BC Parks and then with the Canadian Wildlife Service, throughout the 1960s Edwards developed an approach to the interpretation of natural and cultural history with a focus on the "real thing"—the object, the place, the process, the person—in front of a visitor. Almost everyone who has visited a Canadian park or museum has been touched by Edwards's legacy—but few know his name. Through essays and photographs, a biography and sections from Edwards's unpublished notebook, The Object's the Thing introduces "the father of nature interpretation in Canada," whose work still affects how we experience our heritage today.