Updated: 2007.03.16.
some very good photographic views of the principal buildings of Nanaimo.... Among them are the [Vancouver Coal] company's station, the Episcopal church and parsonage of the Wesleyan chapel, Mr. Franklin's residence, the railway station, & c. The views although taken by an amateur, are very well executed, quite equalling the ordinary professional efforts.A James Tarver was employed as a clerk in Stipendiary Magistrate W. H. Franklyn's (1816-1874) Nanaimo office between May 1865 and some time in 1866. A J. Tarver was secretary to the Nanaimo Fire Brigade in December 1865, and moved away to the United States in July 1867.
NAME: Tashiro, R.Z.
VARIANT: Tashiro, R.L.
LIFE DATES:
BIRTHPLACE:
PLACE OF DEATH:
WHERE ACTIVE:
Claxton Port Simpson.
BUSINESS ADDRESS-YEAR:
HOME ADDRESS-YEAR:
WORK INTERVAL: circa 1892-1900.
STATUS: Commercial.
BIOGRAPHICAL
SUMMARY: He worked at Claxton (1892-1895) and was working at Port Simpson by
1900.
COLLECTIONS: BVIPA BVIPM.
IDENTIFYING MARKS: " R. Z. Tashiro"
(signature) and " Japanese Photographer" (stamp) or " R. Z. Tashiro Fort Simpson,
B.C." on front of print mount.
REFERENCES: WIL93 WIL94 WIL95 HEN00.
NAME: Taylor, Isabel C.
VARIANT: Taylor, Mrs. Archibald Dunbar Taylor, Mrs. S.C.
LIFE DATES:
BIRTHPLACE:
PLACE OF DEATH:
WHERE/WHEN ACTIVE: Montreal/1895 Vancouver/1900-1902.
STATUS:
Amateur.
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: A member with her lawyer husband of the Montreal Camera Club in 1895, they moved to Vancouver in the late 1890s. Her photographs attacted some attention at two exhibits organized by the Vancouver Arts and Crafts Association, in July and September 1900, and again in 1902 when she exhibited 10 prints, likely in the Pictorialist style popular in the photo salons at that time, in the Toronto Camera Club's 11th annual exhibition. One of these photographs, a platinum print titled "
Gertrude
Vandyke--Portrait"
, was awarded a silver medal at the latter exhibit.
At the July 11, 1900 Vancouver Arts and Crafts Association evening exhibit in O'Brien's Hall, Mrs. Taylor's photographs were praised:
A collection of figure studies in photography, by Mrs. Taylor, was another conspicuous feature. In this was demonstrated the fact that the making of pictures--that shall have artistic sentiment as well as technical excellence--by photographic process is not only a possibility, it is achieved,and in Mrs. Taylor's case with a marked success.
In addition to exhibiting her photography, Mrs. Taylor also entertained visitors with a violincello duet with Mr. F.W. Dyke on piano. The Vancouver Arts and Crafts Association held its first meeting to organize on April 6, 1900 in the Lefevre Block in rooms of the Art Workers Guild. According to the minutes book, no women were present. A subcommittee on amateur photography was established on May 19, 1900. A list of members who would be eligible to attend
the first exhibit held in July did not include Mrs. Taylor. In the records of the association at the City of Vancouver Archives are three photographs of the July 11, 1900 exhibit identified as showing " Amateur photography by Mrs. A. Dunbar Taylor." The association held a second exhibit in September identified on the catalogue as its first annual exhibition. This exhibit was held in the Theatre Royal from September 25 to 27, 1900. Mrs. Taylor's " collection of photos" was catalogue entry
96.
She was misidentitied in the catalogue and in a Daily News-Advertiser report as " Mrs. S.C. Taylor."
Mrs. Taylor drew further praise from photographer-critic Harold Mortimer-Lamb, who noted her work in a 1905 article in Photograms of the Year: " In the West, in British Columbia, Mrs. Dunbar Taylor, the sister (by the way) of the Secretary of the London [Photographic] Salon , is the only pictorial worker of any force or originality."
COLLECTIONS/FORMATS: Portraits
(platinum
prints).
IDENTIFYING MARKS:
REFERENCES/ADVERTISING
AND SOURCES (IMAGES): HEN99 (n.l.) HEN00/01 (Vancouver: Taylor, A Dunbar, of Taylor, Bradburn & Innes, h 1225 Georgia) HEN01 (Vancouver: Taylor same as 1900-01, but h 1400 Georgia [between Broughton and Nicola]) VL1900 (Vancouver City ED, no. 7033, May 7, 1900, Taylor, Archibald Dunbar, [residence] 794 Burrard St., Barrister-at-law) Vancouver Arts and Crafts Association records (BVAA Add.MSS. 142, especially three photographs of the July 11, 1900 exhibit, with an anonymous pencilled annotation on
one photo, " Amateur photography by Mrs. A. Dunbar Taylor" , and First Annual Exhibition of the Arts and Crafts Association in the Theatre Royal, September 25th, 26th and 27th, 1900, which refers to " Collection of Photos by Mrs. S.C. Taylor" [sic]) Sprange (1895), Montreal Camera Club, p. 154 World, 1900 07 12/7 (" Arts and Crafts:
Very Sucessful
Conversazione and Exhibition Given Last Evening" refers to " Mrs. Taylor" ) Daily News-Advertiser, 1900 09 27/5 (exhibit review, mentions " work of Mrs. S.C. Taylor" [sic]) Toronto Camera Club, Eleventh Annual Exhibition, April 1st to 5th, 1902, p. 13 J.E. Greene, " The Toronto Camera Club's Eleventh Annual Exhibition," Professional
and Amateur Photographer (1902), p. 177 H. Mortimer-Lamb, " Pictorial Photography in Canada" in Photograms of the Year (1905), p. 86 Koltun
(1984).
NAME: Thompson, Stephen Joseph.
LIFE
DATES: 1864 05 27-1929 08 07.
BIRTHPLACE: Bailieboro, ON.
PLACE OF
DEATH: Vancouver.
WHERE ACTIVE: Port Hope, ON New Westminster
Vancouver.
BUSINESS ADDRESS/YEAR: Columbia St., opposite Colonial Hotel/1886 10-? (Thompson & Bovill) Columbia St. (Hamley Block)/1887-1890
620 Columbia St./1890-1898 610 Granville St. (Vancouver)/1897 12-1900+.
HOME ADDRESS/YEAR: Agnes St. (Spring Villes)/1889-1890 221 Columbia
St./1891-1894 Burr Block/1895.
WORK INTERVAL: 1886 10-1900+.
STATUS:
Commercial.
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Arriving in New Westminster from, it is
believed, New York City, he set up a partnership with one or both of the
Bovill brothers as
Thompson & Bovill late in October 1886. By 1889 he was operating
on his own. He established a branch studio in Vancouver in December 1897. For a
while after the New Westminster studio had been destroyed by fire on September
11, 1898, he maintained a Vancouver and a New Westminster studio. He was
married on December 29, 1897 to Constance Victoria Clute in New Westminster.
Thompson was a prolific and versatile photographer who was equally at home
in portrait and landscape work. He photographed extensively along the Canadian
Pacific Railway throughout the 1890s. Thompson visited the Chicago World's Fair
in 1893. Two years later he was commissioned to obtain views of farms around
Edmonton. In 1898 he accompanied an official expedition to northern BC and
Wrangel led by the Deputy Minister of Marine and Fisheries, Louis Coste.
COLLECTIONS: ABA (prints) BVAA (glass negatives) BVIPA (album and
prints) OOA QMCP (album).
IDENTIFYING MARKS: Thompson identified
his negatives several different ways. The most common are explained here:
before relocating to Vancouver negatives titled and marked " S.J. Thompson,
Photo., New Westminster, B.C." after moving to Vancouver negatives titled and
marked " S.J. Thompson, Photo., Vancouver" at some point Thompson began
numbering his negatives (these numbers may begin in the 300s and proceed to at
least the 1350s) after opening a branch studio in New Westminster negatives
numbered, captioned and marked " Thompson, Vancouver and New Westminster" some
negatives not captioned but marked " Thompson Photo." some negatives numbered
(e.g., " T747" or " 765T" ), captioned and marked " Shaw Bros. Ltd." (Vancouver
firm). The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Archives) has a print with " S.
J. Thomson" [sic] on the verso (ABA print PA10-89).
REFERENCES/ADVERTISING AND
SOURCES (IMAGES): MAL87
WIL89 WIL90 HEN91 WIL92 WIL93 WIL94 WIL95 HEN97 WIL97 HEN98 HEN99
WIL99 HEN00 World, 1893 07 10/1 News-Advertiser, 1895 08 07/6 1897
12 19/8 1897 12 30/6 1898 02 27/8 1898 04 15/8 Province, 1929 08
07/1 (obit.) Who's Who
In Western Canada (1911) Letter, Joan Schwartz to Mattison, 1978 01
04 Mattison (1987b) Letter,
Mrs. E. French (great-niece), London, ON, to Mattison.
NAME: Thompson & Bovill.
WHERE ACTIVE: New Westminster.
BUSINESS ADDRESS/YEAR: Columbia St., opposite Colonial Hotel/1886 10-? Columbia St. (Hamley
Block)/1887.
WORK INTERVAL: 1886 10-1889.
STATUS: Studio.
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: This was the partnership of S.J.
Thompson and one or both of the Bovill brothers. According to the newspaper announcement of the new partnership, " The old photograph parlours on Columbia Street, opposite the Colonial Hotel, have been thoroughly renovated. ... The proprietors are Messrs. Thompson and Bovill. Mr. Thompson is a young gentleman who has recently arrived from the east, where he was the proprietor of a large gallery. ... The firm have imported new instruments, backgrounds,
and
all the accessories necessary to make first class work. They are prepared to give anyone a perfect facsimile of himself or herself, from miniature up to life size, and to do so at eastern prices, a fact worthy of consideration."
COLLECTIONS:
BVAA.
IDENTIFYING MARKS: print surface may be numbered (possibly two
different series), captioned and marked " Thompson & Bovill Photographers,
New Westminster, B.C."
REFERENCES: MAL87 WIL89 British
Columbian, 1886 10 28/3 (" Our New Art Gallery" ) Times, 1888 09
29/1.
NAME:
Towne, Bertram C.
LIFE DATES:
BIRTHPLACE:
PLACE OF DEATH:
WHERE/WHEN ACTIVE: Oregon/1884-1895 Alaska (visit)/1887.
BUSINESS
ADDRESS/YEAR: First Street, Portland, OR/1884-1895.
WORK INTERVAL:
1884-1895.
STATUS: Commercial.
SUMMARY: Operated the San Francisco
Gallery in Portland following William H. Towne's death in 1884. B.C. Towne also
had a partnership as Towne & Moore with Elbridge W. Moore from 1884 to
1887. Following this partnership he worked under the name B.C. Towne Photograph
Company from 1888 to 1895.
An 1887 view in Sitka, Alaska, is captioned " 209.
Scene in Indian Town" and can be viewed on the American Memory (Library of
Congress) Web site. Other digitized images can be accessed through the University of Washington Libraries guide to his photographs.
COLLECTIONS/FORMATS: ORHSOC UWL (Bertram C. Towne Photographs collection no. 502).
IDENTIFYING MARKS: Print surface may be numbered and titled bottom of
print mount " B.C. Towne, Portland, Oregon. Alaskan, Columbia River and
Northwestern Scenery" (Sitka, Alaska, 1887).
REFERENCES:
Mautz (1997)
American Indians of the
Pacific Northwest (American Memory, Library of Congress) UWL, Guide to the Bertram C. Towne Photographs, ca. 1884-1887.
NAME: Troup, Mary Anne.
LIFE DATES:
1869? __ __-____ __ __.
BIRTHPLACE: BC.
PLACE OF DEATH:
WHERE ACTIVE: Victoria?.
BUSINESS/ADDRESS/YEAR:
HOME ADDRESS/YEAR:
WORK INTERVAL: 1891.
STATUS: Commercial (assistant?).
BIOGRAPHICAL
SUMMARY: She is listed as a photographer
in the 1891 Canadian census. In 1891 she lived with her father and mother, Jonas
(born in England) and Rebecca Troup (born in Quebec to English parents), and
several siblings. Mary Anne was 22 at the time of the 1891 census. The family's religion was Methodist and they were enumerated in the Sooke & Goldstream sub-district 3 g-1.
As of October 2002, she is not listed in the birth, marriage or death registration indexes on the
BC Archives Web site.
COLLECTIONS:
IDENTIFYING MARKS:
REFERENCES: Vancouver
Island 1891 Census (Web site).
NAME: Trueman,
Richard Henry.
VARIANT NAME: Trueman, T.H.
LIFE DATES: 1856 __ __-1911 02 22.
BIRTHPLACE:
near Brampton, ON.
PLACE OF DEATH: Vancouver, BC.
WHERE ACTIVE:
Vancouver; Revelstoke; Sandon; Kaslo; Grand Forks.
BUSINESS
ADDRESS/YEAR: 302 Cordova St./1890-1893; 624 Hastings St. W. (Delbruck
Block)/1898-1899; 730 Pender St./1900-1901; 719 or 705 Georgia St. (corner of Granville St.)/1901-1902; 709 Georgia St./1903-1911.
HOME ADDRESS/YEAR: 925 Hornby
St./1892-1893; 302 Cordova St./1894; 439 Homer St. (rooms)/1903-1911?.
WORK INTERVAL: 1890-1910.
STATUS: Commercial.
BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: He began as a tinsmith in
Brampton, but had purchased a photo studio by 1886 and called it the Popular
Photograph Parlor. He sold the studio in 1888 and moved to Brandon, Manitoba,
to homestead with his wife Minnie (d. 1893). Trueman returned to Ontario and
there met and formed a partnership with young
Norman Caple from England. The two are
supposed to have met in Toronto.
Trueman &
Caple travelled the Canadian Pacific Railway line for about a year and then
set up headquarters in Vancouver. After the partnership was dissolved, Trueman
remained in Vancouver but is not listed in the directories of 1895-1897. He
was, however, travelling through the Prairies and appears to have spent most of
the time in Medicine Hat between 1894-99. The newspaper references stated he
was from Vancouver. He continued to travel extensively and up until two months
before his death was managing his Revelstoke branch studio.
He was widowed on January 9, 1893 when his wife died of heart disease at age 31. Trueman was a
superb landscape photographer and was one of few West Coast photographers to
print his negatives on platinum paper. The first modern public exhibit of his
work was produced by the Peter and Catharine Whyte Foundation, Banff, in 1981.
Trueman and his wife are buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver.
COLLECTIONS: BVA (glass
negatives) BVAA (prints) BVIPA (prints).
IDENTIFYING MARKS: negatives
usually numbered, captioned and marked " R. H. Trueman & Co., Photo.,
Vancouver, B.C." or " Trueman, Photo, Vancouver, B.C." or " R. H. Trueman &
Co., Vancouver, Kaslo, Sandon & Revelstoke."
REFERENCES/ADVERTISING
AND SOURCES (IMAGES): BVIPA Death registration no. 1893-09-112393, Minnie Trueman (reel B13092); BVIPA Death registration no. 1911-09-132508, Richard H. Trueman (reel B13099); BVIPA
GR-1415, file 1915 (probate); WIL92; WIL93; WIL94; HEN98; HEN99 (Trueman, T.[sic] H.); WIL99; HEN00 (Trueman, T.[sic] H.); HEN01 (Trueman, T.[sic] H.); HEN02 (Trueman, T.[sic] H.); HEN03; HEN04; HEV05; HEV07; HEV08; HEV09; HEV10 (not listed); HEN11 (not listed); (Vancouver)
Daily News-Advertiser, 1893 01 10/8 and 1893 01 11 1/8 (wife's obit.); various Vancouver and BC newspaper references; Letter, Hugh A. Dempsey to Mattison,
1980 04 09 McDougall (1981);
McDougall (1981-82);
Hadley (1984).