Other Events and Attributes:

• Business Address/Year: 1911-1934, Vancouver, BC
• Business Address/Year: 1935, Vancouver, BC; Address:
  1002 Robson St.
  Vancouver, BC
  Canada
• Business Address/Year: 1936-1960, Vancouver, BC

Notes:

STATUS: Commercial.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Stuart Thomson was born in Hampstead, Eng., in 1881 and grew up in Australia where he apprenticed with the Victoria State Railway. Introduced to photography during this period, he bought a camera to take along on his various trips around the country. He immigrated to Canada in 1910 and began working for the CPR. He took up amateur photography. Another worker recommended he purchase an Empire State View Camera which used 8 x 10 inch negatives. At this point Thomson turned professional, using his boarding house, "The Australia," as his business address initially, then out of his own studio. He was actively engaged in the trade until a month before his death. During the 1920s, he contributed to three daily Vancouver newspapers, but relied more on commercial work by the 1930s. He died in 1960, age 78.

Thomson photographed virtually every aspect of Vancouver, producing about 50,000 images for a variety of clients. Among his photographic achievements were the first civilian aerial photographs in Canada in 1919.

One of Thomson's cameras, a Goertz Anschutz folding camera, was acquired by George Allen (Allen Aerial Photos) who was a friend of his in the 1950s.

IDENTIFYING MARKS: Print surface may be captioned, numbered, dated and/or signed "S. Thomson" or "Stuart Thomson, Vancouver, B.C."