Thompson, Stephen Joseph^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]}

1864 - 1929  (65 years)

• Name	Thompson, Stephen Joseph
  Birth	27 May 1864	Bailieboro, ON
  Gender	Male
  Business Address/Year	Oct 1886-?	New Westminster, BC
  	as Thompson and Bovill
  	Address: Columbia St. opposite Colonial Hotel New Westminster, BC Canada
  Where Active (Non-Specific Address)	Before 1886	Port Hope, ON
  Business Address/Year	1887-1890	New Westminster, BC
  	as Thompson and Bovill until 1889
  	Address: Columbia St. Hamley Block New Westminster, BC Canada
  Home Address/Year	1889-1890	New Westminster, BC
  	Address: Agnes St. Spring Villes New Westminster, BC Canada
  Home Address/Year	1891-1894	New Westminster, BC
  	Address: 221 Columbia St. New Westminster, BC Canada
  Home Address/Year	1895	New Westminster, BC
  	Address: Burr Block New Westminster, BC Canada
  Business Address/Year	1890-1898	New Westminster, BC
  	destroyed by fire 11 Sep 1898
  	Address: 620 Columbia St. New Westminster, BC Canada
  Business Address/Year	Dec 1897-1900	Vancouver, BC
  	initially a branch studio
  	Address: 610 Granville St. Vancouver, BC Canada
  Business Address/Year	1901-1904	New Westminster, BC
  Business Address/Year	1901-1927	Vancouver, BC
  Business Address/Year	1928	Vancouver, BC
  	Address: 771 Dunsmuir St. Photo-Arts Ltd. Vancouver, BC Canada
  Business Address/Year	1929	Vancouver, BC
  	Address: 573 Hornby St. Photo-Arts Ltd. Vancouver, BC Canada
  Death	07 Aug 1929	Vancouver, BC
  Association	Thompson and Bovill (Relationship: Partner)
  Association	B.C. Photo and Fine Art Studio (Relationship: Manager)
  Association	Canfield Francis Orra (Relationship: Employee)
  Association	Easthope, Edwin Frederick (Relationship: Employee)
  Association	Ford, Lillian M. (Relationship: Employee (retoucher))
  Association	French, May (Relationship: Employee (retoucher))
  Association	Timms, Philip Thomas (Relationship: Employee)
  Association	Ross, Helen (Relationship: Employee)
  Association	Guest, John James (Relationship: Employee)
  Association	Wood, Jessie (Relationship: Employee)
  Association	Smith, Charles Henry (Relationship: Printer; Commercial (assistant))
  Association	Howison, J.W. (Relationship: Employee)
  Association	Thompson, Stephen Cecil (Relationship: Father)
  Association	Thompson's Studio and Supply House (Relationship: Proprietor)
  Association	Photo-Arts Ltd. (Relationship: Proprietor)
  Association	Burrard Photo Arts Supply Company (Relationship: Manager)
  Person ID	I40	Camera Workers | T, vol. 1, 1858-1900
  Last Modified	9 Jul 2024

  
  

• Photos » Slide Show		Photographer S.J. Thompson in a pensive pose.
  		A S.J. Thompson photo bearing his number 1290 prefixed by "T" and credited to Shaw Brothers Limited by the latter. While the image content date of ca. 1891 is approximately correct, the Shaw Brothers were not in existence at that time. City of Vancouver Archives Item: Out P796.3 - View from Upper Springs Banff
  		S.J. Thompson studio portrait, between ca. 1889-1898. The photograph is a head-and-shoulders of John Hendry. Courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives, CVA 703-1.4.
  		S.J. Thompson, Columbia St., New Westminster, the day after the Great Fire, 11 Sep 1898. While Thompson's New Westminster studio had been destroyed in the fire, he had already established a branch in Vanocuver and was able to keep operational until he re-established himself in New Westminster. Courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives, OUT P1041.2.
  		S.J. Thompson, aftermath of the Point Ellice Bridge disaster, Victoria, 26 May 1896. According to his newspaper ad, this was taken ten minutes after the tragedy. A high-resolution copy is available at the City of Vancouver Archives web site. Courtesy of City of Vancouver Archives, OUT P247.2.
  		S.J. Thompson studio portrait, 1889-1898. The photograph depicts an unidentified woman standing with her left arm resting on the top of a chair. Courtesy of UBC Library, Uno Langmann Family Collection of British Columbia Photographs, UL_1479_0020.
  		S.J. Thompson studio portrait, 1897-1904. The photograph depicts an unidentified seated man wearing a Canadian Pacific Navigation uniform; his cap bears the Canadian Pacific house flag, as do his uniform buttons (with the words "Canadian Pacific" along the edge) and a medal is pinned to his chest. The photograph was more than likely taken in Thompson's Vancouver studio which first opened in 1897.

  
  

  Documents » Slide Show		S.J. Thompson's studio, 620 Columbia St., New Westminster. S.J. Thompson's studio was destroyed in the New Westminster Fire on September 11, 1898. Fortunately, Thompson had opened a new studio in neighboring Vancouver in December 1897 and had moved his landscape negatives there. This lithograph is possibly from the West Shore periodical. Image courtesty of BC Archives, Visual Records catalogue number HP044342 (item B-09366).
  		S.J. Thompson's ad, News-Advertiser (Vancouver), 1896 05 31. The Point Ellice Bridge collapse occurred on 26 May 1896. Remarkably, S.J. Thompson happened to be in Victoria and was able to be on the scene, according to this ad, within 10 minutes. Over four dozen men, women and children were killed in this tragic event.
  		Thompson's Studio ad, Vancouver Province, 4 Dec 1901, p. 10.
  		S.J. Thompson news, Vancouver Province, 15 Apr 1898, p. 4. This article discusses the return of the vessel Quadra with the Deputy Minister of Marine and Fisheries, Louis Coste, and Thompson.
  		New Westminster exhibition photography prize list, 1898. Vancouver Province, 11 Oct 1898, p. 3.
  		S.J. Thompson imprint, verso of a mounted photograph, 1889-1898. The photograph is a studio portrait of a woman standing with her left arm resting on the back of a chair. Courtesy of UBC Library, Uno Langmann Family Collection of British Columbia Photographs, UL_1479_0020.

  
  

• Notes

  STATUS: Commercial (to 1911); Supplier (1908-1911; 1922?-1929). BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Arriving in New Westminster from, it is believed, New York City, he set up a partnership with one or both of the Bovill brothers as Thompson and Bovill late in Oct 1886. By 1889 he was operating on his own. He established a branch studio in Vancouver in Dec 1897. For a while after the New Westminster studio had been destroyed by fire on 11 Sep 1898, he maintained a Vancouver and a New Westminster studio. He was married on 29 Dec 1897 to Constance Victoria Clute in New Westminster. Thompson was a prolific and versatile photographer who was equally at home in portrait and landscape work. He photographed extensively along the Canadian Pacific Railway throughout the 1890s. Thompson visited the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Two years later he was commissioned to obtain views of farms around Edmonton. In 1898 he accompanied an official expedition to northern BC and Wrangel led by the Deputy Minister of Marine and Fisheries, Louis Coste. He operated as Thompson's Studio & Supply House (1908-1911). After retiring to the real estate business in 1911 or 1912, his negatives were acquired by the Shaw Bros. Ltd. With the help of his son, S.C. Thompson, S.J. re-entered the business as a supplier around 1922 under the firm name Burrard Photo Arts Supply. The company was renamed Photo-Arts Ltd. in 1927 and his son took it over following his father's death. IDENTIFYING MARKS (NEGATIVES): Thompson identified his negatives several different ways. The most common are explained here: before relocating to Vancouver negatives titled and marked "S.J. Thompson, Photo., New Westminster, B.C."; after moving to Vancouver negatives titled and marked "S.J. Thompson, Photo., Vancouver"; at some point Thompson began numbering his negatives (these numbers may begin in the 300s and proceed to at least the 1350s). After opening a branch studio in New Westminster, negatives numbered, captioned and marked "Thompson, Vancouver and New Westminster"; some negatives not captioned but marked "Thompson Photo."; some negatives numbered (e.g., "T747" or "765T"), captioned and marked "Shaw Bros. Ltd." (a Vancouver, Victoria and Winnipeg firm of photographers and publishers). IDENTIFYING MARKS (PRINTS): Mounted prints in the form of studio portraits may have "S.J. Thompson New Westminster B.C." (gold) on bottom front or "Thompson Vancouver New Wesminster" on bottom front. The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Archives) has a print with "S. J. Thomson" [sic] on the verso (ABA print PA10-89). REFERENCES: MAL87; WIL89; WIL90; HEN91; WIL92; WIL93; WIL94; WIL95; HEN97; WIL97; HEN98; HEN99; WIL99; HEN00; World, 1893 07 10/1; News-Advertiser, 1895 08 07/6; 1897 12 19/8; 1897 12 30/6; 1898 02 27/8; 1898 04 15/8; Province, 1929 08 07/1 (obit.); Who's Who In Western Canada (1911); Letter, Joan Schwartz to Mattison, 1978 01 04; Letter, Mrs. E. French (great-niece), London, ON, to Mattison.

  
  

• Sources

  [S46] COLLECTION: BVIPA. Prints. [S45] COLLECTION: BVAA. Negatives and prints. [S152] COLLECTION: OOA. Prints [S1031] COLLECTION: BNWESTA. Prints. [S947] Open Collections (UBC Library and Archives) (Web site). Uno Langmann Family Collection of British Columbia Photographs (prints). [S134] COLLECTION: BVA. Negatives and prints. [S590] David Mattison, Mattison (1987b), (Journal of the West 26, no. 2 (April 1987):17-26). [S761] WRI28, (Vancouver: Wrigley Directories, 1928), 1483. Vancouver: "Thompson Stephen mng dir Photo Arts h 504, 998 Thurlow" [S762] WRI29, (Vancouver: Wrigley Directories, 1929), 1222. Vancouver: "Photo Arts Ltd S J Thompson mgr mtg[?] 573 Hornby"