*** photography and publishing: photographers -- William Notman and Sons








Photographers: William Notman and Sons (Canada, 18??-??)

inglet curkls
Figure 1.-- This is one of the thousands of the portraits taken at the Notman and Sons Studio in Montreal. The portrait here is Master Henry Wildgrass. The portrait was taken around June-August 1863. Henry wears what looks like a cut-away jacket and vest with knee pants and white three-quater socks, He has a lace collar and matching wrist cuffs. This might be called a Little Lord Fsuntleroy suit, but appeared two decades before Mrs. Burnett wrote her book. Henry also has ringlet curls with an unusual center part. Usually ringlet hair styles has the center part broken by front bangs.  

William Notman set up a photographic studio in Montreal, Canada only a few years after photography was developed, about 1845. It was one of the principal photograohic studios in Canada. Both English and French speaking Canadians were photographed there. As Notman and his sons opperated their studio until about 1935, it provides a wonderful pictorial history of the Canadian people. The whole collection comprises about 450,000 negatives and is archived in the Musée McCord. The Museum explains, "Portraits comprise a major part of the Notman collection. Prominent Montrealers and visitors from abroad sought out William Notman's studio to have their likenesses committed to silver for posterity."

Studio collections like Notmans are especially helpful to historians because for the most part they are carefully archieved with the name of the subject and the date the portrait was taken. Large numbers of portraits in the public sector have no such privunance making them difficult to effectively use.

The portrait here is Master Henry Wildgrass. The portrait was taken around June-August 1863. It is an especially interesting portrait becaise of the boys' hair. Mos boys with ringlets did not have center parts. The center part that the boy has was more commonly worn by girls with ringlets. It is one of many examples of whyit is very help to have the names of the subjects. In this case it would have been clear even without the name that the child was a boy. Girls did not wear pants in the 1860s.






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Created: October 7, 2003
Last updated: 6:05 AM 10/20/2009