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photographer Butchart and wife – photos courtesy the Jessie Stenberg collection

Toronto. In our journal, editor Bob Lansdale worked hard to present Canadian photographic history, often drowned out by the cacophony from across the border. While older Canadians learnt British history; younger ones through products, movies, magazines, TV, etc. learned about how great things American were.

Any Canadian business, once it grew to the point of being a potential threat, suddenly moved south to where vast markets and demand held forth.

In the times when we were a British colony; a British linked dominion, the influx of many people and ideas were from the UK. As an example, photographer David Coutts Butchart emigrated from Scotland to become an early Toronto photographer (first noted in 1859, before the Dominion was established). In issue 25-2 (over 60 pages) Walter J. Balfour ©1999 wrote an article titled, “DAVID COUTTS BUTCHART: An Early Toronto Photographer” about his great grandfather.

Walter begins, “In 1985, while visiting my mother in Scotland, our conversation turned to a discussion of my activities at the University of Victoria. I told her that part of my research involved photography which prompted her to remark that I might have come by that naturally since her maternal grandfather had been a photographer by profession. His name was David Coutts Butchart, with a studio in Toronto.

“I thought little more of this conversation until some years later while visiting the National Archives building in Ottawa I chanced to notice a drawer labeled Canadian Photographers.

“On checking its contents I discovered, much to my surprise, a file on my great-grandfather with references to some of his work preserved in the National Archives collection. This prompted me to talk to a staff member who then introduced me to a photo-archivist in Photography Acquisition and Research, Mr. Andrew Rodger.

“He knew of Butchart’s work but said he had no biographical information and would like to have some. I thus decided to see what I could discover… this sketch [see pdf file or journal] is the result.

“David Butchart was born in the Scottish parish of Barry in what was at the time Forfarshire, now Angus, on the last day of the year 1831. He emigrated with his parents to Canada in his twenties and became one of Toronto’s early portrait photographers.

“The Statistical Account of Scotland of 1791 describes Barry as principally a farming and weaving community of some twelve square-miles area, hosting a population of 796. The region remains agricultural today. David’s father, Alexander Butchart, was a farm laborer. We learn from the parish record that Alexander had married on 29 March 1829 a girl from the adjoining parish, Margaret Todd.

“David was their second child and eldest son in a family of eight children. There have been Butcharts recorded in the district from the middle of the 15th century. The surname is probably an anglicized form of the French Bouchard, brought across the English Channel by the Normans. Earlier spellings of the surname range through Bowchart, Bowchard, Bouchard, Bouchart and Buschart.” …

The entire article and its many illustrations were viewed by members in the issue 25-2 pdf file on the free members-only DVD/thumb drive. Joining the PHSC is easy and inexpensive – follow “Membership” above or at right. And email any membership questions to Lilianne at member@phsc.ca.

And while we can’t promise that you will spot a Butchart photo at one of our events, you will see lots of items that complement your collection. Our fall fair on October 19th is coming up fast. See the PHSC News 25-7 for details.

NB, The title idea came from Quentin Taratino’s 2019 movie, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood“.