Description:
Rare images that turned up recently at an Australian auction.
While this photo is held by many other archives in Canada, most copies are black and white or
negatives. The original photo is thought to be lost. The crease in the centre of the photo appears
in all the copies, suggesting the original was folded at some point.
Rare images turned up recently at an Australian auction of memorabilia from the
American civil war. Among the varied items of a recent auction of civil war
militaria in South Yarra, Australia, including a folding moustache comb and a
Spenser repeating carbine, were 13 cartes de visite. At this point we know
nothing about the seller and how these photographs ended up halfway around the
world, just that these photos must have made an incredible journey. Although
several of the cartes in the auction lot had obvious American associations, the 8
acquired by the Archives and featured here were clearly from Manitoba dating
from the 1860s and 70s.
Astonishingly among these eight cartes is an iconic image of Louis Riel and a
number of his councillors who joined him as part of the Métis Legislative
Assembly of Assiniboia. It is likely the earliest print of this well-known image,
dating somewhere around 1869 and quite possibly taken by photographer Ryder
Larsen. One account states that a photographer pulled Louis Riel and others who
were in a saloon together for the original photograph. Most of the individuals
however were part of the Assembly of Assiniboia.
The Red River Settlement in Manitoba in June 1872 at the corner of Portage and Main. The
travellers in the photo are thought to be the Nimmons family. The photographer's name, J.
Penrose, is printed on the backside of the image.
The larger collection of cartes-de-visite were likely taken around the Red River
settlement by photographers James Penrose and Simon Duffin, among others.
Copies of some of these prints exist in other repositories. The modern notion of
copyright did not exist at this time and photographers freely rephotographed
works by other people so it is difficult to say with any certainty who may have
taken the original photograph in each case.
The cartes de visite however provide a glimpse into what the Red River
settlement looked like at that time and provide a nice balance between civic life
and the private life of citizens. The shot of Portage and Main is so different from
what it is today that it is virtually unrecognizable. Included in the 8 cartes as well
is a photograph of aboriginal people, Ojibwe mourners in a graveyard in Lake of
the Woods, Manitoba. The way the above ground graves are constructed is
interesting. But what makes the image both startling and sad is the fact that
everyone in the photo has obviously covered their faces to avoid their faces being
photographed. The accession number for this collection is A13-5.
Shelley Sweene
Another photo from the studio of James Penrose in which a man poses as a hunter in Metis
clothing. The photo is thought to be from 1873
A land survey party near the Red River Settlement.
Two sleds pulled by dogs at the Red River Settlement.
The Dominion Land Titles Office in Winnipeg in 1872 or 1873.
Three First Nations people at the site of several graves somewhere between 1873 and 1875 "The
grave types are definitely Ojibwe (Anishinaanbe) style."
A homestead thought to be near the Red River Settlement, likely in the mid-1870s.