Notman Photo Co.
William Notman (8 March 1826 – 25 November 1891) was a Scottish-Canadian photographer and businessman. The Notman House in Montreal was his home from 1876 until his death in 1891 and has since been named after him.
Notman was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1826, and moved to Montreal in the summer of 1856.[1][2] An amateur photographer, he quickly established a flourishing professional photography studio on Bleury Street, a location close to Montreal's central commercial district.
The first Canadian photographer with an international reputation, Notman's status and business grew over the next three decades. He established branches throughout Canada and the United States, including seasonal branches at Yale and Harvard universities to cater to the student trade.[2] Notman was also an active member of the Montreal artistic community, opening his studio for exhibitions by local painters; the studio also provided training for aspiring photographers and painters. Notman was highly regarded by his colleagues for his innovative photography, and held patents for some of the techniques he developed to recreate winter within the studio walls. He won medals at exhibitions in Montreal, London, Paris, and Australia.
The Notman Photographic Archives was created with the addition of the McCord Museum's existing photographic holdings to the Notman Collection, and the Notman Collection served as the kernel for an extensive Canadian photography department, covering Canada from Newfoundland to Victoria, the Great Lakes to the Arctic, from 1841 to 1935.[7]
His residence from 1876 until his death, Notman House in Montreal was added to the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec historic registry on December 8, 1979.[8]
"William Notman." Wikipedia. Retreived July 22, 2019 from Wikipedia.org: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Notman N.C.
William Notman in Boston
Brother John Sloan Notman, Tremont St, 1867-1868; John Sloan Notman set up his studio in Boston during the latter months of 1866. Evidently the business was established in partnership with his brother-in-law J.M. Gatehouse, a former florist, although the firm appears in advertisements as J.S. Notman & Co. and clearly William Notman was a silent partner. The comapny was located clos to other photographic studios of the period in busy Tremont Street, not far from the business and political center of New England... Closed shop in 1868 John died in 1879 in a train accident
1877-1918 Notman Photography Studio or Notman Studio (Notman and Campbell became Notman solely at some point; Dennis (or Denys) Bourdon was the main photographer in 1880; moved to 280 Boylston St; William Notman died in 1891 the businesses passed to his sons, the American operation sold to Dennis Bourdon in 1918.
In 1877, William Notman sent James Notman to Boston with Thomas Campbell to set up studio again, called Notman and Campbell at 4 Park Street. Within a year, James was bought out of partnership by borhter William, who became the majority shareholder (2/3 to Campbell's 1/2). The reasons are not clear: James,perhaps used to being his own boss in the Maritimes, may have found the partnership too confining, Yet advertising on a cabinet card suggests William Notman may have also been James's partner in a new studio and residence at 99 Boylston....moved further down Boylston a few years later and other studios at 7 Brattle Street and 400 Harvard Street in Cambridge. Joined in the mid1880s by nephew George Sloan Notman who stayed until 1889 when he left to become a Boston portrait painter (he dropped the Notman name and became George Sloane). James Notman remained active in the Boston area until 1895, when he took early retirement and closed his studio.
The World of William Notman by Roger Hall, Gordon Dodds, and Stanley Triggs, 1993 in curatorial library
