A Deeper Depth of Field

What does it mean to remember a country? To hold on to images, not just of leaders and landmarks but also of ordinary people, changing landscapes and evolving identity?

Known for his innovative compositions and mastery of early photographic techniques, William Notman — born in Scotland in 1826 — arrived in Canada in 1856 and became the first Canadian photographer to earn international acclaim. Working both from his Montreal studio and in the field, he produced images that helped define our nation’s visual identity. Notman’s lasting impact was recently recognized by the inclusion of his archives in UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register.

Housed at the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal, the Notman Photographic Archives span from 1856 to 1935 and include more than 200,000 glass negatives and 400,000 prints. But what makes these archives exceptional isn’t just their size — it’s the scope of Notman’s vision. His lens captured the breadth of Canadian life, from formal studio portraits to sweeping wilderness scenes to promotional images for the Canadian Pacific Railway. Yet, among the grandeur, his photographs also featured everyday people — plasterers, poets, the grand and the gritty alike. His photos were widely published and circulated internationally, helping establish a vision of a new country on the global stage.

“He didn’t just show us what Canada looked like,” says Zoë Tousignant, curator of photography at the McCord Stewart Museum. “The Notman archives tell us about Canada’s place within global history. It’s not just national, it’s international in scope.”

Idealized at times, Notman’s images helped define a national identity: vast, rugged and worthy of reverence. Today, they serve as landmarks of a different kind, bearing witness to a country shaped not only by its landscapes but also by its diverse, evolving people.