Looking south-west from the west side of Bay Street,April 1904
Photographer: W.J. Whittingham
City of Toronto Archives
Fonds 1408, Item 16
The tall fragment in the centre reads “Comfort Soap.” The tower to its right is that of the Union Station of the time, which was far enough west to escape the fire.
Toronto. In 1904, a disastrous fire consumed much of the business district in Toronto. The fire was visible as far away as other cities both here and in the States. Help arrived from places like Hamilton, and Buffalo.
The city archives have many photographs of the fire. Another example of how photography augments history. In issue 18-5 Ev wrote an article on the studio of Peake and Whittingham. One of the photographs illustrating Ev’s article is that shown at left taken by Whittingham during the 1904 fire.
The photo is just one of the photos of the fire housed in the Toronto Archives.
Ev describes the photo in this cut-line, “The sombre beauty of this scene, the ashes from which grew the phoenix Toronto, combine delicate tonal scale as a result of smoke, dust and haze with graphic composition. From a half-plate print.”
Collectors of images need to check for and include disaster images such as this. The collector can use archival fonds as necessary to identify the image content and its creator.
Here in Toronto, we are indeed fortunate to have a wealth of photographs in our archives. NB: The archives is a PHSC member via a resident archivist.
