10 WOMEN IN CANADIAN PHOTO HISTORY EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 

BY LAURA JONES

WOMEN’S CONTRIBUTIONS in history have often been dismissed. In terms of Canadian photographic history, these omissions have provided us with a somewhat one-sided vision of our country’s history.

With the digitization of collections in archives across the country and the creation of easily searchable online resources, the work of female photographers has slowly but surely been unearthed and shared.

By no means is our short list of women in photography comprehensive, but it’s a start. It’s about time that these female photographers were acknowledged and credited.

Born in England, Hannah Hatherly married Richard Maynard at 18 and moved to Bowmanville, Ontario. While Richard travelled around Canada as a prospector, Hannah learned photography. When the family moved to Victoria, British Columbia, she set up her own business as, “Mrs. R. Maynard, Photographic Artist and Dealer in All Kinds of Photographic Materials.”

By 1880, Victoria’s growing tourist trade enabled Maynard to move into a larger studio and hire an apprentice. In 1897, she became Victoria’s official police photographer. Anyone arrested was taken to her studio for a mug shot.

Besides operating a successful business and raising five children, Maynard experimented with her medium in a way that was not only creatively ahead of her time, but technically superior to the work of her contemporaries. Her signature works include photomontages, multiple exposures, and photosculptures.

Her multiple exposures and montage images were revolutionary. She used various techniques to create new kinds of images. Her photomontages sometimes involved thousands of images. Maynard created The Gems of British Columbia series annually between 1881 and 1895. She made the final image into a New Year’s greeting card, sending it to all the mothers of the children she had photographed in the preceding year. She carefully cut out each portrait, pasted them together, and re-photographed the result on glass.

To make a photosculpture, Maynard covered her subject with white powder and black cloth, took a picture, and then superimposed it onto an image of a papier mâché bust or figure.

Maynard used mirrors and partial glass negative exposures to create unique narratives about herself and surreal tributes to the deceased.

In 1969, Ron D’Altroy entered a weathered storage shed in Beaton, British Columbia. Inside the damp shed, among rat feces, he found something unexpected: 200 of Mattie Gunterman’s glass plate negatives. After months of careful treatment, the negatives were saved. The shed was revealed to have been Gunterman’s darkroom.

Mattie was born Ida Madeline Werner in La Crosse, Wisconsin. At age 17, she moved to Seattle, Washington. While employed in a hotel, she met her husband-to-be, candy maker William Gunterman. In 1892, they had a son, Henry. A few years later, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the Guntermans headed north for a dryer climate. They purchased land in Thomson’s Landing (Beaton), British Columbia. The Guntermans and their dog Nero walked a thousand kilometres, hunting, trapping, fishing, and working as cooks in mining, logging, and railroad camps along the way.

At the time, most amateurs used fixedfocus simple film cameras. Gunterman used a 4×5 inch glass plate camera. This gave her the advantage of a larger negative, more precise focus, and a choice of shutter speeds. Using an extra-long cable release, she would include herself in her photos.

Once in Beaton, Gunterman spent winter months developing her plates and making prints. Her photographs show some of the difficulties of pioneer life and the joys of leisure time. She photographed the men at work in the Nettie L. Mine, including the deceased miners as they were being shipped back to their Nova Scotia homes for burial.

Annie Grey McDougall was born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. In her mid-twenties she purchased a camera and learned photography at William Notman’s studio in Montreal.

McDougall worked as a librarian at the Fraser Institute for 47 years, starting in 1898. She became devoted to the library’s survival through the Depression and World War I, often doing the work of two people. In 1940, she attempted to resign but was kept on until the end of World War II.

Her leisure time was spent with her sister, Ida, and Ida’s family. Ida’s husband, Charles Howard Millar, was an avid amateur photographer. He began with tintypes and proceeded to work with newer processes. McDougall and Millar both extensively photographed Ida and the six Millar children.

McDougall used glass plates for her earlier photographs and later used nitrate negatives. These negatives were found among a collection donated to the McCord Museum in Montreal. The nitrate negatives were curled up tight like little pencils and had been stored in a cardboard chocolate box. Now they are properly conserved.

Most of McDougall’s film negatives have not been catalogued. The McCord collection, which includes McDougall’s and Millar’s photographs, also contains photographic postcards of Quebec, letters, bills, and receipts (including bills for photography supplies).

Georgiana (Eugenie) Gagné worked in the photography business in Montreal, Quebec, with her husband Édouard. Over time, they ran three studio locations.

Gagne’s 1890 portrait of Mrs. Wing Sing and her son is unusual for the time, as studio portraits of immigrant families were uncommon. Typically, studios such as Notman’s focused on portraits of the established upper class.

Between 1886 and 1890, Gagné produced 4¼ × 6½ inch photographs on cabinet cards. They are similar to cartes de visite but larger, mounted on sturdier board, and higher in quality. Some were even hand-coloured. The front of Gagné’s cards were imprinted with her name and address.

Gagné’s husband was still in business in 1891, but it is not clear if Gagné was.

Geraldine Moodie was born in Toronto, Ontario. Her entry into photography began when she photographed and hand coloured her mother’s flora drawings for her great aunt Catherine Parr Trail’s books.

In 1878 Geraldine married John Douglas (J.D.) Moodie. They moved to Calgary in 1886 when Douglas became an inspector with the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) tasked with mapping a trail to the Yukon.

As early as 1895, Moodie copyrighted her negatives, indicating her awareness of their importance. That same year, she documented the annual Cree Sun Dance and Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell commissioned Moodie to document locations relating to the Riel Rebellion.

While her husband’s career advanced (he became the governor of Hudson Bay in the eastern arctic district), Moodie did not sit idly by. She worked as a professional photographer for over a decade. She ran studios in Battleford and Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, and in Medicine Hat, Alberta. She operated this successful business while raising five children.

In 1904, Moodie travelled to the North West Territories with her husband aboard the ship Arctic as a secretary. Her husband attempted to acquire official photographer status for her. The request was denied but her photos continued to be sent with reports, including correspondence to Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier.

In 1911, Moodie photographed a NWMP contingent leaving for the coronation of King George V. When her husband retired, she continued her photography in Maple Creek.

To date, more than 600 of Moodie’s photographs have been collected. They can be viewed online thanks to the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, Alberta.

Gladys Reeves was born in England. Her family settled in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1904. One year later, 15-year-old Gladys Reeves worked as a receptionist, then a retoucher, and then a photographer, in Ernest Brown’s photo studio.

Reeves hadn’t intended to become a photographer. The original job was meant for her older sister. But Brown and Reeves ended up working together for nearly 50 years.

In 1911, Brown, motivated by a decade of success, built and moved into a new building complete with studio, office, store, and rental units. As the economy sank during World War I, Brown’s business deteriorated. In 1920, he was evicted. Everything except his photos were seized. He stopped photographing for about seven years but helped Reeves establish her own business. Disaster hit Reeves when a fire ruined her studio. Roughly 5000 prints, including many of Brown’s, were destroyed. Brown helped Reeves open another photography business. This one operated until about 1950.

Brown and Reeves were interested in increasing awareness of pioneer life. In the 1930s, they created the Birth of the West photo series for use in public schools. Brown willed his photographs and his collection to the Province of Alberta. Reeves was hired to organize and document its contents of over 10,000 photographs. Reeves’s photographs are in the Brown collection.

Reeves has been recognized for her extensive contributions to the City of Edmonton. Beyond her photographs, she was interested in horticulture and worked tirelessly to beautify the city.

A 2009 Edmonton Fringe Festival performance, The Unmarried Wife, was loosely based on Brown and Reeves.

Photographer Elsie Holloway was in business in St. John’s, Newfoundland, for 40 years. In 1914, she photographed hundreds of enlisted men in the Newfoundland Regiment. For years, the Holloway Studio was also popular for children and family portraits.

Holloway and her brother, Bert, learned photography from their father, a founder of the Photography Society for Amateurs. In 1908, two years after their father died, the siblings opened the Holloway Studio. Elsie took most of the studio portraits while Bert focused his attention on outdoor scenes. Holloway continued the business after her brother died in World War I. As business increased, her staff included eight assistants.

Holloway’s career highlights included meeting and photographing Amelia Earhart in 1932 at Harbour Grace. In 1939, the photographer’s presence was noted when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stopped on their royal tour.

Some questions remain as to who took which pictures: Elsie, her father, her brother, or other photographers. Most are simply stamped “Holloway.”

For a time Holloway’s glass negatives had been incorporated into a greenhouse. Those that survived are in the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Born in Brome Township, Quebec, Sally Elizabeth Wood learned her trade as an apprentice at Notman’s studio in Montreal. She began taking portraits for John A. Wheeler in his studios at Knowlton and Cowansville, Quebec. Upon Wheeler’s retirement in 1897, Wood established her own business.

For her early work, Wood used an 8x10 inch glass plate camera and photographed exteriors of homes, stores, and schools. Besides portraits and architecture, she documented landscapes and domestic life. In 1905, James Valentine and Sons published a series of her photographs as postcards.

Wood photographed until 1907. Her work is identified with the signature Miss. S.E. Wood.

Rosetta Ernestine Watson was born in Drummond Township (Perth), Ontario, the daughter of Henry Watson and Rosetta Goodall. She became a successful portrait photographer after training in the United States and at William Notman’s studio in Ottawa.

Watson married, becoming Rosetta Carr, and moved to Winnipeg. She purchased a photo business from George Searl, changing its name from Searl and Company to American Art Gallery. This was Winnipeg’s largest portrait studio and the only Winnipeg photo business run by a woman at the time.

She used dry glass plate negatives. Out of the three common processes in use at the time — carbon, silver, and platinum — Carr preferred the quality of the platinum.

In part, Carr’s 16-year business was successful because she promoted her studio with incentives, such as children’s discounts, coupons, displays, and music. One review stated that her business showed “the progress of our civilization.” Carr photographed many prominent people, including members of the Manitoba Legislature.

Competitors reacted to Carr’s ambition and success. When she was given exclusive rights to photograph the Winnipeg Industrial Exhibition, other photographers (men) boycotted the photography competitions taking place at the Exhibition. She took advantage of this, exhibited her photographs, and won every single prize.

It was by chance that Margaret Jane (M.J.) Dukelow changed her plans to become a teacher and developed skills as a photographer.

Her career began with seven years of employment in a photo studio in Thousand Islands, Ontario. Dukelow’s first studio was in Iroquois, Ontario. On the back of her cabinet cards, she claimed to be the “only Lady Photographer in Canada.”

She promoted her skills with new processes, fast exposures, multiple copies in various sizes, and hand-colouring. Dukelow was also a member of the Photographic Association of Canada, a rarity for a woman at that time.

At age 28, she married Harry H. Bryant, a sales agent in Brockville, Ontario. The Belleville Directory from 1899 lists Mrs. Harry H. Bryant as the owner of the Quinte Studio. In 1902, they moved to Winnipeg and worked together at the Bryant Studio until 1910.

Bryant was said to be the first woman photographer in the west and to be one of the first to use dry plates.