It may have been lucky that William Notman was born the same time photography was born.
It may also have been lucky that 30 years later, in 1856, Notman’s “creative accounting” (i.e. fraud) at his father’s cloth business was discovered. William Notman and his family fled Scotland and settled in Montreal.
Needing to make extra money during the winter months, Notman borrowed money to open a photo studio. Within a couple years, he had established himself as the most prominent photographer in Montreal.
The new, and expensive, art of photography was practiced by few but in demand by many. The handful of professional photographers in Montreal were kept busy especially for portraits.
The woman in the photo is 22-year-old Annie Grey McDougall who bought her first camera from William Notman in 1888. She learned photography and darkroom skills from Notman.
Not all photography studios were as ornate as William Notman’s. A typical studio was a large room with a high ceiling, tall windows and maybe even a skylight. Portrait lighting came from the large windows and photographers also used reflectors, diffusers and scrims to modify the window light.
If you look closely at the above photo, (and also shown enlarged in the photo below), you’ll see some glass negatives drying on a wooden rack on the window ledge. At the time, photography was done on glass plates (aka gelatin dry plates). But in 1888, Kodak’s first camera used a roll of paper-based emulsion which made it easy for anyone to use. Kodak’s $1 camera in 1900 used a roll of celluloid film. More on these two cameras in a moment.
To capitalize on the high demand for professional photography, Notman went on to open at least nine more studios in Canada and the USA. One of these studios was opened in Ottawa, 1868, a year after the birth of Canada. Was it luck or business savvy that Notman built this studio right across the street from the Parliament buildings?
Notman had one of his Montreal apprentices, 23-year-old William James Topley, move to Ottawa and run the studio.
In the nation’s capital, Topley photographed prime ministers, senators, members of Parliament, governors general, British royalty, social events and various government commissions. At its peak, the Ottawa studio was doing about 2,300 portrait sessions per year.
Topley became the proprietor of the studio by 1872. He moved his studio three times over the following three or four decades but always stayed in the same area.
Technology and Change
Photography came to the middle and upper classes in 1888 when Kodak introduced its Kodak No. 1 camera for $25 USD and that included 100 circular photos:
This camera made photography available to the public but it was a relatively expensive product at the time. Back then, the average person earned about $5 to $10 per week and a work week was usually 10 hours per day, six days per week.
The word “snapshot” in the early 1800s meant the quick firing of a gun. Sometime in the 1890s, “snapshot” changed to mean quick pictures.
Kodak revolutionized photography in 1900 with its No. 1 Brownie camera priced at a very affordable $1 USD (about $35 USD today). The introduction of this camera was equivalent to what happened a hundred years later when cellphone manufacturers put a “free” camera in their smartphones.
In the early 1900s, almost everyone, including children, were making their own photos. They were “kodaking.”
The demand for professional portraits dropped off through the first decade of the 1900s probably because everyone had a Kodak camera. The Canadian economy began to slump in 1913 and then Canada entered World War I in 1914. A combination of tough times led the Topley Studio, which by 1910 was being operated by Topley’s son, William Jr., to stop doing photography in 1923. The business closed three years later.
In the top-right corner of this photo, notice William Topley’s portrait of then-Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier. Sixty-one-and-a-half years later, in December 1972, that portrait of Laurier appeared on the Canadian five-dollar bill:
Just below the portrait of Laurier is an interesting photo:
To me, that looks like a photo of an airplane flying off into the sunset. You didn’t see that very often in 1911. Powered flight came to Canada in February 1909. Canada’s military started testing airplanes in Petawawa, north of Ottawa, in 1909 and local aviation clubs existed in 1910.
Classic Portraits
Most of William Notman’s archives are held by a private museum in Montreal and many images are on its web site.
A large collection of William Topley’s photos are held by Library and Archives Canada. Caption information for these photos is either extremely minimal or non-existent. Nevertheless the photos provide a glimpse of Ottawa from the late 1860s through the turn of the century.
It is one of the peculiar characteristics of the photograph that it isolates single moments in time.
– Marshall McLuhan
Here’s a tiny sample of William Topley’s portraits (in no particular order):
This may be either Catherine Elizabeth Higgerty or her younger sister Mary Elizabeth Higgerty of Ottawa. Canadian census information shows that Catherine was born 1884 (or 1887) and Mary was born 1888 (or 1891). The dates vary between the 1901 and 1911 censuses.
Topley had earlier photographed her brother Charles Higgerty who, in 1905, started a customs brokerage in Ottawa that worked with the federal government. That business was just recently acquired by another customs broker.
Francis Higgerty, another brother of Miss Higgerty, died in the 1918 sinking of RMS Leinster.
This woman might be either Miss Sarah Elizabeth Parmelee (born 1869) or her younger sister Miss Julia Parmelee (born 1871). Their father, William Grannis Parmelee, worked for the federal government. Topley photographed several members of the Parmelee family over the course of 35 years.
It appears that both women remained “Miss” throughout their long lives and may have shared an Ottawa home. They were front-page news (and more here) in 1954 when a gunman attacked Julia in her home.
There were many Meikle families living in the greater Ottawa area. Without more information, it’s impossible to know who this person was.
This may be 32-year-old Eugènie Laterrière, aka the second Mrs. Charles Pelletier. Topley photographed Canadian politician Sir Charles Alphonse Pantaléon Pelletier many times during his 30-year political career in Ottawa.
Twenty-nine years later, another portrait of Mrs. C.P. Pelletier (Mrs. Charles Pantaléon Pelletier). The children might be her stepson’s children.
Topley had several hand-painted backdrops in his studio. In photo studios of any era, backgrounds and props get reused often and poses can be repeated from customer to customer.
A portrait with just a partial name leaves you wondering who the person is, or was. What is/was their story? What motivated them to pose for a portrait?
Census data from 100 or more years ago were often incomplete, illegible or done in a very casual way. Many records no longer exist. Census records today are more complete but, after 1926, this information is kept private for at least 92 years.
This painted backdrop depicts an outdoor scene. Topley also used fake snow and fake ice to produce “outdoor” winter portraits.
Topley photographed Miss Gordon many times over at least a 14-year span, from child to adult. He also photographed other members of her family including her three sisters, Kate, Anne, and Muriel.
Topley also photographed her one-year-old brother, Halder Smith Kirby, during the same photo session. Over the years, Topley photographed other members of the Kirby family.
Lydia’s brother was named after their uncle Dr. Halder Smith Kirby. Dr. Kirby in 1883 co-founded the Ottawa Hockey Club which competed for the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (aka the Stanley Cup). That 19th century hockey club led to today’s Ottawa Senators hockey team.
This is quite possibly James Stewart Tupper, a son of Canadian politician and Father of Confederation Charles Tupper. Topley photographed Charles Tupper, his sons and at least one of his grandchildren on a few occasions.
Census data from 1871 show that a 24-year-old Kent L. Clisby lived in Ottawa in 1871. He was born in England and was Anglican.
Ottawa newspaper records state that an L.K. Clisby was the proprietor of a hotel at 3 Elgin Street, (about two blocks from Topley’s studio), and he got married to a woman from England, at an Ottawa Anglican Church in August 1872.
Intentional Portraits
The value of professional portraits is not just the high quality cameras and lenses that a photographer uses. After all, today’s cellphone cameras are higher quality than the equipment used by William Topley and William Notman. The value of a professional portrait comes from lighting, pose and capturing the best moment.
A classic portrait is an intentional portrait. It intentionally uses simple poses, simple lighting and a simple composition. It’s intended to stand the test of time and become a keepsake. This is why 130-year-old portraits can still look good today, still command attention and still evoke emotion.
Professional portrait photography creates and preserves memories.
