File MS-3328 - Photographic View Album by R. Maynard, Artist

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Title and statement of responsibility area

Title proper

Photographic View Album by R. Maynard, Artist

General material designation

  • graphic material

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Title statements of responsibility

Title notes

  • Attributions and conjectures: The album is attributed to Richard Maynard. Photographs are credited to Richard Maynard, but could also possibly be attributed to Hannah Maynard.
  • Source of title proper: Title based on the content of the file.

Level of description

File

Reference code

MS-3328

Edition area

Edition statement

Edition statement of responsibility

Class of material specific details area

Statement of scale (cartographic)

Statement of projection (cartographic)

Statement of coordinates (cartographic)

Statement of scale (architectural)

Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)

Dates of creation area

Date(s)

  • [between 1880 and 1890] (Creation)
    Creator
    Maynard, Richard

Physical description area

Physical description

1 album (62 photographs : b&w)

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Archival description area

Name of creator

(1832-1907)

Biographical history

Richard Maynard (1832-1907) was a well-known British Columbia photographer, prospector, and business owner originally from Cornwall, England and based in Victoria, British Columbia.

Richard Maynard married Hannah Hatherly in England in 1852 and they immigrated to Bowmanville, Ontario. While there, he operated a boot and shoe business but left in the late 1850s to travel to the Fraser River on the west coast of the country to participate in the gold rush. Richard returned to Bowmanville and he and his wife Hannah moved with their young family to the Colony of Vancouver Island in 1862 on the Sierra Nevada. Upon the Maynard family’s arrival in Fort Victoria, Mr. R. Maynard continued his prospecting enterprises in the Stikine region on the mainland. Upon his return from the area, he joined his family and opened up a business in Victoria.

Primarily a field photographer, Richard was known for his field and landscape photography. It is unknown how or with whom he learnt photography. He made many trips in the Colony of Vancouver Island and the mainland. One of his earliest trips was an excursion to Barkerville in 1868 with his son Albert. At that time, early photographer Frederick Dally was among the other photographers in residence there. In 1873 and 1874, Richard travelled on the vessel the HMS Boxer touring Coast Salish and Interior Salish Indigenous communities as the photographer accompanying government officials including Israel Wood Powell on tours of inspection. The journey in 1873 consisted of travelling to the Northeast Coast of Vancouver Island and adjacent settlements on the mainland including Fort Rupert on Vancouver Island, and Bella Coola, Bella Bella and Cape Caution, and in 1874, he travelled to the West Coast of Vancouver Island which included Friendly Cove in Nootka Sound. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, photographers Oregon Columbus Hastings (1846-1912) and Edward Dossetter (1844 -?) made similar inspection tours with I.W. Powell in 1879 and 1881 respectively.

In the spring of 1884, Richard Maynard traveled to Haida Gwaii (then referred to as the Queen Charlotte Islands) as a photographer with the American explorer Captain Newton H. Chittenden. Engravings from his views were published in the Official Report of the Exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands for the Government of British Columbia (Victoria, 1884).

Also during the 1880s, Richard Maynard documented the construction of the transcontinental railway in British Columbia and Alberta through multiple tours. In 1885, both Richard and Hannah Maynard appear to have photographed the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.) along its route through British Columbia. These trips crossed both Coast Salish and Interior Salish Indigenous territorial regions and produced images of both colonial and Indigenous settlements and communities at a time of intense change and oppression that significantly affected Indigenous lifeways, rights, resources and lands in British Columbia. Maynard C.P.R. related photographic "views" were available for order or purchase at the Maynard Studio and other commercial operations in Victoria and on the mainland during the 1880s.

In the late 1870s and 1880s, Richard also made several trips further up the continent to Alaska for photographic purposes in 1879, 1882, 1887, and in 1892 to the Pribilof Islands where he documented sealing and seal rookeries.

For his work, Richard Maynard received acknowledgements including those representing museum and photographic communities. In a public lecture in 1884, members of the Newcombe family acknowledged Richard Maynard's ethnographic work British Columbia and Alaska, and his documentary record of the Cariboo Road in the 1860s and 1870s. In 1890, Richard Maynard won first prize in the professional class for the Victoria landscape view, "The Arm" by West Shore magazine in October of 1890. During his lifetime, Richard Maynard’s photographic works appear to have been collected by a number of museum institutions in the United States.

During the course of his career, the personal history of Richard Maynard and his wife are closely linked, to both his photographic work and that of his wife’s photographic studio, Mrs. R. Maynard’s Photographic Gallery (1862? – 1912). Richard Maynard and Hannah Maynard took several working trips together where they both practiced landscape photography during the 1870s and 1880s. This included trips to Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii and to Banff, Alberta. Richard Maynard's field photography and landscape views appear to be used by Hannah as source material for composite works, such as the piece “80 Views on the Frazer River” featuring multiple landscape views, and also in their “documentary” composite works of Indigenous subjects. Photographic work created by Richard and his wife Hannah have been attributed to each other in several ways and means over their photographic careers. Both Richard and Hannah Maynard have been given credit for the same photographic work, as in the case for the Victoria landscape view, "The Arm."

Richard Maynard retires in the late 1890s. In 1896, his son Albert Hatherly Maynard (1857-1934) became the general manager of his business, as well as taking over management of the photographic stock. Richard Maynard died at the age of 74 on January 10, 1907, in Victoria, British Columbia.

Custodial history

Found in Visual Records in August 1989. Annotation on first page: “Presented to the museum by Mrs. R. Maynard Douglas St. Victoria in 1890.”

Scope and content

File consists of one album containing 62 albumen photographic prints mounted on 31 pages. Images depict landscape views that document the coast and interior of British Columbia, as well as Banff, Alberta. Each page contains a title and photographer’s name, but no date. Photographs were likely produced during photographic tours that Richard and Hannah Maynard conducted to document the construction of the transcontinental railway, including the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R.) during the early-to-late 1880s. Images include views of railroad stations, bridge and trestle construction, pathways and routes, field portraits, and settlements including Songhees, Victoria, Esquimalt, Nanaimo, Vancouver, New Westminster, Kamloops, and Banff, Alberta. Landscape views include the Salmon, Harrison, Fraser, Thompson, Columbia, “Illcillewait” and Bow Rivers; Stoney Creek; Devil Lake Creek; Summit Lake; Eagle Pass; Syndicate Peak; “Mount Caroulle”; Kicking Horse Pass; Mount Stephen; Mount Castle; Mount Edith; the Cascade Mountains; Tunnel Mountain; Devil Lake Canon; and the Three Sisters. Several geographical formations such as “Lady Franklin Rock, Fraser River” are identified as well as a number of parks, including Harrison River Hot Springs and Hot Springs at the National Park (Banff). There is one image identified as the coal mining district of Anthracite, Banff. The Maynards commercially sold their C.P.R.-related photographic views to the public. They were available for order or purchase at Mrs. R. Maynard’s Photographic Gallery and other commercial operations in Victoria and elsewhere in BC.

Notes area

Physical condition

Spine and cover is damaged. There is spotting and surface dirt on some of the prints. A number of prints at the rear of the album have small sections missing in the image surface that may obscure some of the visual information.

Immediate source of acquisition

Arrangement

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Location of originals

Availability of other formats

Restrictions on access

For conservation reasons, access to the original is limited. Researchers should consult the online reference image prior to consulting the original.

The photograph album is not restricted, however records held by BC Archives are historical in nature and contain depictions and captions representative of the time. Some photographs in this album may be considered culturally insensitive or offensive.

Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication

All photographs are in the public domain.

Finding aids

Associated materials

Also see: PR-2365 Medals, Tokens and Numismatic Collection for materials relating to Richard Maynard’s 1890 award received for the Victoria landscape view, "The Arm".

Also see: MS-3473 for views relating to the Canadian Pacific Railway construction in British Columbia and Alberta in the 1880s.

Also see: MS-1077.1059 for notebooks containing photograph lists for the 1887 tour of Selkirk and Rocky Mountains and MS-1077-1055 for the 1882 trip to Yale as well as MS-1077.1051 and MS-1077.1050 for Hannah Maynard diaries.

Related materials

Accruals

General note

Archives code(s): MS-3328

General note

Accession number(s): Originally accessioned as 198908-010, later reaccessioned as 95-7328.

Physical description

Beneath each image album pages are stamped with: “R. Maynard Artist” and “Victoria, B.C.”

Signatures note

Photographic prints contain signatures by R. Maynard: i.e., “Kamloops C.P.R. by R. Maynard, Victoria, B.C.”

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