Portraits of British Americans. Part I

Montreal: Printed by John Lovell, May 1865. Softcover. Good. vi, 49, [11] p. 23 cm. 5 pasted-in portrait photographs. Blue card covers. Spine tail chipped. Some light soiling to outside and a little foxing to interior.

Contains portraits and biographies of Viscount Monck, Rev. Francis Fulford, John A. Macdonald, S. L. Tilley, and Sir Louis H. Lafontaine. Photographer William Notman was born in Scotland in 1826 and moved to Montreal in the summer of 1856. As 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. Fennings Taylor was best known for his contributions to Canadian historical literature, predominantly as a biographer. His first and most noteworthy work was this collaboration with Notman, originally issued in monthly instalments such as this before being published as a three-volume work in 1865–68. Taylor’s biographies for Portraits were strongly influenced by the nascent romantic nationalism of the Confederation era and his biographies are for the most part sympathetic.