Henderson, Alexander, 1831-1913 : Alexander Henderson, merchant and photographer, was born in the vicinity of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1831. With his wife, Henderson emigrated to Lower Canada in October 1855. They settled in Montreal, where from 1859 to 1863 Henderson was a commission merchant. He learned photography in Montreal about 1857 and quickly took it up as a serious amateur. In 1865, he published his first major collection of landscape photographs entitled: Canadian Views and Studies by an amateur. In 1866, he opened a photographic studio, advertising himself as a portrait and landscape photographer. From about 1870 he dropped portraiture to specialize in landscape photography and other views. His photographs of city life revealed in street scenes, buildings, and markets are alive with human activity, and although his favourite subjects were landscapes he usually composed his scenes around such human pursuits as tilling the soil, cutting ice on the river, paddling a canoe, lumber trade activities, steamboats, railways and waterfalls. Henderson travelled widely throughout Quebec, Ontario and Maritimes. In 1872, he took photographs of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway. In 1876 he photographed bridges on the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway between Montreal and Ottawa. From 1882 to 1884 he took pictures of bridges built by the Dominion Bridge Company Limited for the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1885, he went west along the CPR as far as Rogers Pass, B.C., where he portrayed the mountain scenery and the progress of construction. Henderson frequently exhibited his photographs in Montreal and abroad in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, New York, and Philadelphia where he often received special mentions. He met with greater success in 1877 and 1878 in New York when he won first prize in the exhibition held by E. and H.T. Anthony and Company for landscapes using the Lambertype carbon process. In 1878 he won second prize (a silver medal) at the universal exposition in Paris. In the 1890s, he founded and was president of the Montreal Camera Club. Between 1892 and 1897, he worked for the CPR as manager of a photographic department. He retired completely from photography in 1897 and died in Montreal in 1913. Henderson's work is known today through several collections of prints, the largest being in the National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, and the Notman Photographic Archives in the McCord Museum of Canadian History, Montreal.
Among his Montreal addresses were: 3 Inkerman Terrace, Drummond St., 1859-1863; Phillips Square, 1867-1874; 237 St. James, 1874-1876; and 387 Notre Dame, 1876-1898.
Works located in: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.; Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Ont.; 09AAB; Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.; Bibliothèque de la ville de Montréal, Montréal, Québec; Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum, Montreal, Quebec; TPL, Baldwin Room U. of Montreal.; Royal Geographic Society.
Exhibition(s): SG:1863, Amateur Photographic Association, London. SG:1865, Dublin Exhibition. SG:1876, Philadelphia International Exhibition. SG:1878, Paris International Exhibition. SG:1980, City Blocks, City Spaces, PAC, Ottawa. SG:1983, Private Realms of Light, PAC, Ottawa.
