Notman, William, 1826-1891 : William Notman was born in 1826 in Scotland. He came to Canada in 1856 to a dry goods job with Ogilvy, Lewis & Co. of Montreal. He opened his first photographic studio on Bleury Street, then a string of 20 studios throughout the 1860s to the 1880s in Canada and the northeastern United States. In 1868, he opened a branch studio in Ottawa, under the management of William James Topley, who had been apprenticed to him for three years. Another Notman studio was opened in Halifax in 1870. Some of these studios were organized in partnerships, as for example, that with his brother James in St.John, N.B. in 1872, or that of Notman & Fraser in Toronto, which opened around 1868. Such studios bore Notman's name on their images, although it would be the partner, one of the operators or a manager who actually took the photograph. In 1876, the firm became Notman & Sandham with the entry of Henry Sandham, R.C.A. The name was changed again in 1880 to William Notman & Son when the oldest boy, William McFarlane (1857-1913) was brought into partnership. (Eventually the two youngest sons, Charles and George, also worked for the firm; it was George who continued the business until its sale to Associated Screen News in 1935). The variety of work include a huge volume of portraits, group portraits of athletic clubs, commercial assignments and souvenir images, such as landscapes and city views. Notman also pioneered the development of photographic publishing in North America. Among Notman's publications are "Photographic Selections" (Montreal, 1863), "North American Scenery" (Montreal, 1864), "Portraits of British Americans, with biographical sketches", produced from 1865 to 1868 in collaboration with John Fennings Taylor. In 1866, discerning a heightened interest in sports as a leisure activity, Notman published three portfolios of photographs entitled "Cariboo hunting", "Moose hunting", and "Sports pastimes and pursuits in Canada". Although he did not publish books after 1868, photographs from his studio illustrated other publications such as Henry George Vennor's "Our birds of prey" (1876). In 1869 a half-tone reproduction of a Notman photograph of Prince Arthur in George Édouard Desbarats's Canadian Illustrated News constituted the first commercial use of this technique. It demonstrated once again Notman's place in the forefront of photography. His personal success was marked by the achievement of many medals and photographic honours and by his appointment as photographer to the Queen around 1861. The magic of Notman's name is still such as to put a premium on all images attributed to him or to one of his studios. Many continue to uphold the standard of excellence which became synonymous with the name of Notman. William Notman died in Montreal in 1891. Biographical information from VSA accession file.
