Collection F 4357 - Collection of William Notman and Alexander Henderson photographs

William Notman (1826-1891) was a photographer and businessman active in the Province of Canada during the mid nineteenth century.

Notman was born in Paisley, Scotland. He emigrated to Montreal, Canada in 1856 with his wife, Alice Merry Woodwark, and daughter after practising as an amateur photographer in Scotland. Notman had seven children, three of whom were boys who trained as photographers and worked with their father.

Notman was primarily a portrait photographer; amongst his many subjects were Sir John A. MacDonald, Prince Albert, and Sitting Bull. He travelled extensively in Canada photographing Canadian scenery, activities and businesses, and was also commissioned to photograph major engineering achievements such as the Grand Truck Railway construction over Victoria Bridge at Montreal in 1858. Notman was also known for his composite photographs for which each subject was photographed individually and their image pasted onto a painted background.

Notman achieved an international reputation with studios in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Halifax and seasonal studios at Yale and Harvard Universities. As the Photographer to the Queen, Notman recorded the Royal visits for the Canadian government.

Alexander Henderson (1831-1913) was a photographer and merchant based in Montreal who captured the scenic landscapes of Canada during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Henderson immigrated to the Province of Canada in 1855 and settled in Montreal with his wife, Agnes Elder Robertson. From 1859 to 1863, he worked as a commission merchant while pursuing photography as an amateur, an endeavour in which he found great success, as evidenced by the prizes he won at amateur photo exhibitions in the United States, Ireland, Scotland and France.

In 1861, he enlisted in the 3rd Battalion of the Volunteer Militia Rifles, becoming a captain in 1862. In 1865, Henderson published his first collection of landscape photographs, Canadian Views and Studies by an Amateur. After opening a studio in 1866, Henderson's second collection of photographs, Snow and Flood After the Great Storms, appeared in 1869, followed shortly thereafter by Photographs of Montreal in 1870.

In 1872, Henderson began photographing the construction of Canada's railways. Over the years, he would produce photographs for the Intercolonial Railway (1872, 1875), the Occidental Railway (1876) and the Canadian Pacific Railway (1882-1885).

In 1892, Henderson became manager of the CPR's photographic department and produced photos from as far west as Victoria, British Columbia. He continued in this post until 1897, when he retired completely from photography. Alexander Henderson died in 1913.