Thesis Format

Integrated Article

Nineteenth-Century Canadian Photographically Illustrated Books Online: Examining and Sharing a Research Collection as Data

Elizabeth Knazook, Western UniversityFollow

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Art and Visual Culture

Supervisor

Bassnett, Sarah

Abstract

This thesis investigates the artistic, economic, and social history of original photographs as book illustrations in Canada, from their first appearance in Samuel McLaughlin’s monthly periodical, The Photographic Portfolio: A Monthly View of Canadian Scenes and Scenery (Quebec: S. McLaughlin, 1858-1860), through the waning years of the nineteenth century when halftones and other forms of photomechanical prints surpassed them as more commercially viable options. The accompanying digital collection at Nineteenth-Century Canadian Photographically Illustrated Books (https://canadianphotographicallyillustratedbooks.com) brings to light hundreds of photographs found in books which survive in public collections today, primarily in Ontario and Quebec, and documents the often surprising differences between book copies as well as relationships to other nineteenth-century media.

Thesis chapters present case studies of McLaughlin’s Portfolio and James MacPherson LeMoine’s Maple Leaves: Canadian History and Quebec Scenery (Quebec: Hunter, Rose & Co., 1865) which explore, in turn, how authors and publishers used photographs and how readers engaged with them. The first chapter looks at the disconnect between the fraught economics of book production and the emerging popular discourse around photographically illustrated books as affordable and desirable artistic goods. By exploring the commercial challenges of publishing in a small, local market, I demonstrate that photographic books were probably far from profitable ventures. Their value was rather in their ability to fulfill the popular interest in illustration, supplying a developing local industry with assuredly high-quality goods. The second chapter explores the previously unknown trend of extra-illustrating with photographs in Canadian books, bringing to light a practice that has not received much attention in the history of photography generally and which offers a new mechanism for understanding the audience for photographic illustration as participants in meaning-making.

A critical component of the thesis is the digital collection, which makes available the data that allowed for unique discoveries about the Canadian market for photographically illustrated books, such as the presence of extra-illustrators in the creation of Maple Leaves. The thesis concludes with a reflection on how to present humanities research collections as reusable research data by considering emerging practices from the cultural heritage sector around ‘collections as data.’

Summary for Lay Audience

The photographically illustrated book is a type of publication in which original photographs are used as illustrations. The photographs are often pasted directly onto the pages of the text, sometimes with letterpress, lithographed, or handwritten captions and decorative borders. These publications first appeared in the 1840s, shortly after the invention of photography itself, though it would not be until the 1850s that they began to be produced in North America. In 1858, the first issue of Samuel McLaughlin’s monthly periodical The Photographic Portfolio: A Monthly View of Canadian Scenes and Scenery (Quebec: S. McLaughlin, 1858-1860) marked the beginning of photographic book illustration in Canada. Over the next 40 years, more than 100 other books were published with photographs in Canada, but many of these were not known prior to the digital collection created for this thesis at Nineteenth-century Canadian Photographically Illustrated Books (https://canadianphotographicallyillustratedbooks.com/).

Original photographic prints fell out of favour with publishers at the end of the nineteenth century as halftones and other forms of photomechanical printing became more affordable, viable, and attractive options. Despite the volume of production, and the arguably critical role that photographic illustration played in the development of the Canadian publishing market, these important books faded from popular memory surprisingly quickly. Today, nineteenth-century Canadian photographically illustrated books are poorly documented and generally not well-known. The digital collection that accompanies this thesis draws from the collections of Canadian memory institutions to bring more of these works to light, highlighting their importance in the development of nineteenth-century Canadian media culture. Thesis chapters present case studies of two books: McLaughlin’s Portfolio and James MacPherson LeMoine’s Maple Leaves: Canadian History and Quebec Scenery (Quebec: Hunter, Rose & Co., 1865), exploring both how authors and publishers used photographs and how readers received them. The thesis concludes with a reflection on why these types of digital collections are so important to share openly, so that the information gathered in this study can be reused and built upon by others.

Recommended Citation

Knazook, Elizabeth, "Nineteenth-Century Canadian Photographically Illustrated Books Online: Examining and Sharing a Research Collection as Data" (2024). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 10633.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/10633