Those with just a passing familiarity with Quebec historical photography will know the names Notman, Livernois and Edwards.
Lesser known, nearly anonymous, is Alexander Henderson. The McCord-Stewart Museum in Montreal is rectifying that curious lack of recognition with an exhibition of some 250 photographs from the Scottish immigrant’s body of work, spanning from 1857 to 1897.
When Henderson died in 1913, the exhibit’s notes say, his obituaries made no mention of his remarkable career as a photographer, “an omission that continues to mystify Henderson experts today.”
That omission might have been even more mysterious, were it not for the foresight of a former head curator at the McCord, Stanley Triggs, who acted to secure Henderson’s archives from his last direct descendant.
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