The album was probably compiled by Frederick N. Gisborne (1824-1892) or a member of his family. Gisborne was a businessman and inventor, and the album's contents reflect his career. Included in the album are views of his residence in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and of his son's residence in Battleford, Saskatchewan, as well as the residence of his relatives, the Burchells, also of Cape Breton.
Gisborne was born in Lancashire in 1824, and accompanied his uncle to Tahiti and Mexico as a youth, where they attempted to grow gutta percha as insulation for electric wires. In 1845, he emigrated to Canada with his brother, where he farmed for two years near St. Eustache. He became a telegraph operator for the Montreal telegraph Company, and by 1847, he became the general manager for the British North American Electric Telegraph Association, to connect the Maritimes by telegraph to Canada. From 1849 to 1851, he was Superintendent of Telegraphs in Nova Scotia, when he first studied the idea of a submerged transatlantic cable, in 1852 he succcessfully laid an underwater cable between Nova Scotia and PEI. In 1853-54, he attempted to do the same from Newfoundland to Cape Breton, without success. In 1856, after a second attempt, and in partnership with American Cyrus Field, the effort succeeded. Field went on to link Great Britain and America by cable in 1858 (temporarily) and in 1866 (permanently). Gisborne meanwhile became President of the Mining Association of Newfoundland for several years, before returning to England in the early 1860s to become a mines and minerals agent for the Government of Nova Scotia. He returned to canada in 1869 as cheif engineer for an English company which had invested in Cape Breton Coal Mines. In 1879, he became superintendent of the Telegraph and Signal Service of Canada. where he remained for several years. In this capacity he was involved in the development of a cable system stretching from Canada to Australia via the Aleutian Island, Japan and New Guinea. In 1883 he travelled to the Northwest Territories to inspect the telegraph network for which his son Hartley had been named superintendent. He also accompanied the Northwest Field Force to the Northwest in 1885. He died in Ottawa in 1892.
The album's contents reflect Gisborne's career, since it includes views of prominent individuals in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Canada with whom he was associated. It also includes views in Cape Breton, including his residence and the Cox-Heath Mines with which he was associated, a photograph of SS Faraday, the telegraph cable ship responsible for laying underwater cables in the 1870s and 1880s, views in British Columbia, and views of his son's residence in Battleford, Saskatchewan. The album also contains views of Quebec and Ontario, Oregon, California (especially Yosemite), Yellowstone Valley, Hastings and Worthing, England, Blarney Castle, and Queenstown, Ireland.
