1012
the base of operations, Notman also pursued opportuni-
ties in the United States starting in 1869 with college
photographs for Vassar, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and
others. These were printed and compiled into albums
in Montreal. In 1875, new postal regulations governing
exports to the United States jeopardized the college
trade and so in 1877, Notman began opening American
branches under the name of the Notman Photographic
Company. Permanent studios in Boston, Albany, New-
port, and Cambridge were complemented by seasonal
studios operated in small college and resort towns for
a total of twenty-four branches in North America. In
1876, Notman established the Centennial Photographic
Company in Philadelphia to secure exclusive photogra-
phy rights for the United States Centennial World Fair.
Notman’s Montreal studio also entered the photographic
competition at the fair. One of the judges, German
photographer Hermann Vogel, commending the quality
of North American photography practices, wrote that
“ahead of all stands Notman.”
Notman shared his expertise in letters, articles, and
photographs with the Philadelphia Photographer edited
by Edward Wilson. In 1867, for example, he introduced
the cabinet portrait format to North America with an
article and a sample tipped into the January edition.
Another Notman innovation was the fi rst photo-iden-
tity card, called a photographic ticket, produced at the
Centennial Photographic Company to regulate entry for
exhibitors, press, and employees of the 1876 World Fair.
Notman studio photographs were also distinguished in
the United States as the fi rst to be used in advertising.
Travelers Insurance, pioneering the illustrated hanging
calendar, commissioned Notman to make composites of
the Union and Confederate Commanders for their 1883
calendar, followed by composites of Famous American
Authors, Eminent Women, and Famous Editors.
Notman relied on his brothers, John Sloan (1830–
1879) and James (1849–1932), other young men he
had trained as photographers, and his sons William
McFarlane (1857–1913), George (1861–1921), and
Charles (1870–1955) to manage studios as he expanded
operations. Although women held a variety of positions
at Notman’s and numbered up to thirty percent of em-
ployees, none were photographers. William McFarlane
began in 1873 as an apprentice and by 1882 became a
partner in the fi rm. He specialized in view photogra-
phy and is best known for work done for the Canadian
Pacifi c Railway between 1884 and 1909, photograph-
ing landscape along the transcontinental line between
Montreal and Calgary and into the Rocky Mountains,
and First Nations people in the western provinces and
territories. He also photographed extensively in Nova
Scotia, Newfoundland, and Quebec.
George apprenticed in Montreal in 1884 and repre-
sented Notman’s in London at the 1887 Golden Jubilee.
In 1890, he moved to Boston and in 1893 left the family
fi rm to establish his own studio in New York followed
by one in Boston. In 1900, he returned to Montreal but
left the photography industry.
Charles apprenticed in Boston in 1888. He returned
to the Montreal studio following his father’s death in
1891 and established a reputation for portraiture. In
1894, Charles joined William McFarlane as a partner
in William Notman and Sons. On William McFarlane’s
death in 1913, Charles became sole proprietor. Upon his
retirement in 1935, the studio’s artifacts were sold to
Associated Screen News. These included four hundred
thousand prints compiled in two hundred day books
from 1860 to 1935, two hundred thousand negatives,
employee wages books documenting names, salaries,
and employment dates of four hindred employees from
1864 to 1917, and an alphabetical index to the day
books. In 1955, benefactors donated these materials to
the McCord Museum of Canadian History at McGill
University in Montreal where the Notman Photographic
Archives, housing the most extensive collection of a
single nineteenth-century photography studio in the
world, now resides.
Colleen SkidmoreBiography
William Notman was born in Paisley, Scotland on 8
March 1826. He was the eldest of seven children of
Janet Sloan and William Notman Sr. a manufacturer of
women’s shawls who in 1840 established a dry goods
business in Glasgow. Notman received a classical edu-
cation that included drawing and painting. As a young
adult he entered the family business and learned photog-
raphy although the details of his training are unknown.
In 1853, Notman married Alice Woodwark of Glouces-
tershire, England. Three sons and fi ve daughters were
born between 1856 and 1870. In May 1856, Notman fl ed
to Montreal to avoid arrest for illegal business practices
undertaken to avert bankruptcy of the Notman fi rm. His
wife and infant daughter joined him three months later.
His parents, three brothers, and one of his three sisters
followed in 1859. William Notman died of pneumonia
in Montreal on 25 November 1891.See also: Daguerreotye; Wet Collodion Positive
Processes; Tintype (Ferrotype, Melainotype); and
Albumen Print.Further Reading
Hall, Roger, Gordon Dodds, and Stanley G. Triggs, The World of
William Notman, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993.
Harper, J. Russell, and Stanley Triggs, Portrait of a Period: A
Collection of Notman Photographs 1856 to 1915, Montreal:
McGill University Press, 1967.