Notman Photographic Archives

Last updated
Major Bell's farm house, Bell Farm (Indian Head, Saskatchewan) (1884) Major Bell's farm house, Indian Head, SK, 1884 (2918688675).jpg
Major Bell's farm house, Bell Farm (Indian Head, Saskatchewan) (1884)

The Notman Photographic Archives (French : Archives photographiques Notman) is an archive of photographic images originally collected by photographer William Notman. It is conserved by the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal, Quebec. Institutions and researchers worldwide consult the archives. Through its thousands of images—landscapes, well-known people, families, places, events, and activities—these historically invaluable archives provide a visual history of Montreal, Quebec and Canada from the 1840s to the present. As well as the iconographical data bank of 1,250,000 photographs, the archives include various items of early photographic equipment and accessories.

Contents

Profile

More than 450,000 photographs (including 200,000 glass negatives), were taken by the Notman studio during its 78 years of operation. [1] Each glass negative is accompanied by a print that is identified, listed and classified in numerical order in one of 200 albums, and in alphabetical order in one of 43 other albums. The principal period of this archive is 1840–1935. About 800,000 images taken by other photographers (from the 19th century to the present), including such known figures as Alexander Henderson and John Taylor.

A small but important collection of photographic equipment.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mathew Brady</span> American photographer (c. 1823 – 1896)

Mathew B. Brady was an American photographer. Known as one of the earliest and most famous photographers in American history, he is best known for his scenes of the Civil War. He studied under inventor Samuel Morse, who pioneered the daguerreotype technique in America. Brady opened his own studio in New York City in 1844, and went on to photograph U.S. presidents John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Van Buren, among other public figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky</span> Russian chemist and photographer (1863–1944)

Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky was a Russian chemist and photographer. He is best known for his pioneering work in colour photography and his effort to document early 20th-century Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photographers of the American Civil War</span>

The American Civil War was the most widely covered conflict of the 19th century. The images would provide posterity with a comprehensive visual record of the war and its leading figures, and make a powerful impression on the populace. Something not generally known by the public is the fact that roughly 70% of the war's documentary photography was captured by the twin lenses of a stereo camera. The American Civil War was the first war in history whose intimate reality would be brought home to the public, not only in newspaper depictions, album cards and cartes-de-visite, but in a popular new 3D format called a "stereograph," "stereocard" or "stereoview." Millions of these cards were produced and purchased by a public eager to experience the nature of warfare in a whole new way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Notman</span> Scottish-Canadian photographer and businessman (1826–1891)

William Notman was a Scottish-Canadian photographer and businessman. The Notman House in Montreal was his home from 1876 until his death in 1891, and it has since been named after him. Notman was the first photographer in Canada to achieve international recognition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rephotography</span> Photographing from the site of a previous photograph

Rephotography is the act of repeat photography of the same site, with a time lag between the two images; a diachronic, "then and now" view of a particular area. Some are casual, usually taken from the same view point but without regard to season, lens coverage or framing. Some are very precise and involve a careful study of the original image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McCord Stewart Museum</span> Museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The McCord Stewart Museum, formerly known as the McCord Museum of Canadian History, is a public research and teaching museum. The Museum’s Archives, Documentary Art, Dress, Fashion and Textiles, Indigenous Cultures, Material Culture and Photography collections, containing 2.5 million images, objects, documents and works of art, position it as the custodian of a remarkable historical heritage. It is located directly across the street from McGill University, in the downtown core of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William James Topley</span> Canadian photographer

William James Topley was a Canadian photographer based in Ottawa, Ontario. He was the best known of Ottawa’s nineteenth-century photographers and the most socially prominent one. Topley was noted for his portraiture of Canadian politicians and was a business partner of William Notman, having taken over Notman's Ottawa studio in 1872. A large number of photographs by Topley are now in the collection of Library and Archives Canada, including approximately 150,000 glass plates negatives and a set of 66 index albums covering the entire history of his Ottawa studios from 1868 until 1923.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John A. Hammond</span> Canadian artist

John Hammond, was a Canadian adventurer, photographer, artist, printmaker and art educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bourne & Shepherd</span> Indian photographic studio

Bourne & Shepherd was an Indian photographic studio and one of the oldest established photographic businesses in the world. Established in 1863, at its peak, it was the most successful commercial firm in 19th-and early 20th-century India, with agencies all over India, and outlets in London and Paris, and also ran a mail order service. A devastating fire in 1991 destroyed much of the studio's photographic archive and resulted in a severe financial loss to the firm. The long-term impact of the fire, legal difficulties with the Indian government, which owned the studio building, and the increasing dominance of digital technology, finally forced the studio's closure in June 2016. At its closure, the studio had operated continuously for 176 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Notman House</span> Private house in East of the Golden Square Mile

Notman House is a historic building at 51 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, Quebec, near the Golden Square Mile. Completed in 1845 for Sir William Collis Meredith, the house takes its name from the celebrated photographer, William Notman, who lived there with his family from 1876 until his death in 1891. The house is the only surviving residence of its era on Sherbrooke Street, and one of Quebec's few residential examples of Greek Revival architecture. It was classified as an historical monument and added to the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec on December 8, 1979.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lai Afong</span>

Lai Afong was a Chinese photographer who established Afong Studio, considered to be the most successful photographic studio in the late Qing Dynasty. He is widely acknowledged as the most significant Chinese photographer of the nineteenth century.

Michael Flomen is a self-taught Canadian artist who primarily creates photograms, or cameraless photographs in collaboration with nature. Flomen began taking photographs in the late 1960s, and since 1972 his work has been exhibited internationally. Snow, water, firefly light, wind, sand, sediment, shorelines and other natural phenomena make up the elements used to create his photograms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Elizabeth Wood</span> Canadian photographer

Sally Elizabeth Wood also known as Sally Eliza Wood (1857–1928) was a Canadian photographer who lived in Quebec. After training under William Notman, she worked for John A. Wheeler until she opened her own studio in 1897. She is remembered in particular for her views of the local architecture and her countryside scenes in Brome County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Arthur Fraser</span>

John Arthur Fraser was an English artist, photography entrepreneur and teacher. He undertook various paintings for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He is known for his highly realistic landscapes of Canada and the United States, many of them watercolor paintings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josiah Bruce</span>

Josiah Bruce was a Canadian known for creating notable photographs of historic value in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabor Szilasi</span> Canadian photographer (born 1928)

Gabor Szilasi is a Canadian artist known for the humanist vision of his social-documentary photography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photography in Canada</span>

Photographs have been taken in the area now known as Canada since 1839, by both amateurs and professionals. In the 19th century, commercial photography focussed on portraiture. But professional photographers were also involved in political and anthropological projects: they were brought along on expeditions to Western Canada and were engaged to document Indigenous peoples in Canada by government agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. S. Coburn</span> Canadian artist

F. S. Coburn D.C.L., also known as Frederick Simpson Coburn was a Canadian painter and illustrator. He was also a photographer of note.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. J. Way</span> English artist (1835-1919)

C. J. Way was an English artist who travelled to North America to discover scenery for his landscape and seascape paintings. Besides scenic views of Canada and the United States, his subjects included England, Wales, Italy and the Swiss Alps. Initially a watercolour artist, he began to work in oils in the 1870s.

William Henry Edward Napier was a Canadian artist, photographer and engineer. His medium as an artist was watercolour.

References

  1. "Notman Photographic Archives". Collections. McCord Museum of Canadian History . Retrieved 2010-04-29.