Camera Workers, 1858-1950

The British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858-1950

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Broadbridge, Richard[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21]

Male Mar 1871? - 1954


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  • Name Broadbridge, Richard 
    • A FamilySearch family tree uses the name James Richard Broadbridge. There are conflicting records around his birth date and birth place. It is possible he was born in Australia and that his family immigrated to England when he was very young so that he believed he was born in England.
    Birth Mar 1871?  [8] 
    Gender Male 
    Marriage 4 May 1906  Winnipeg, MB Find all individuals with events at this location  [8, 22] 
    Bride: Hilda Sara Groombridge 
    Business Address/Year 1908-1909  Vancouver, BC Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Address:
    653 Granville St.
    Broadbridge-Bullen Photo Company
    Vancouver, BC
    Canada 
    Business Address/Year 1909  Vancouver, BC Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Address:
    518 West Hastings St.
    Broadbridge-Bullen Photo Company
    Vancouver, BC
    Canada 
    Business Address/Year 1910  Vancouver, BC Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Address:
    330 Homer St.
    Broadbridge Commercial Photo Company
    Vancouver, BC
    Canada 
    Business Address/Year 1911  Vancouver, BC Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Address:
    207 West Hastings St. (Dominion Trust Building)
    Broadbridge Commercial Photo Company
    Vancouver, BC
    Canada 
    Business Address/Year 1912  Vancouver, BC Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Address:
    330 Homer St., nos. 7-8
    Homer Block
    Vancouver, BC
    Canada 
    Business Address/Year 1913-1915  Vancouver, BC Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Address:
    330 Homer St., nos. 6-7-8
    Homer Block
    Vancouver, BC
    Canada 
    Death Aug 1954  Australian Capital Territory, Australia Find all individuals with events at this location  [23, 24] 
    Association Croft, Lawrence Floyd (Relationship: Photographer) 
    Association Broadbridge-Bullen Photo Company (Relationship: Partner) 
    Association Broadbridge Commercial Photo Company (Relationship: Proprietor) 
    Person ID I428  Camera Workers | B, vol. 2, 1901-1950
    Last Modified 16 Apr 2021 

  • Documents
    Richard Broadbridge's ad, <i>Vancouver City Directory</i> (Henderson, 1911), p. 1641.    		Richard Broadbridge's ad, Vancouver City Directory (Henderson, 1911), p. 1641.
    Note that "He takes motion pictures, too", which makes him one of the first professional cinematographers in Vancouver, edging out A.D. "Cowboy" Kean for that honor by two years.
    W.S. Forsythe and L.F. Croft news item, <i>Chilliwack Progress</i>, 6 Nov 1912, p. 5    		W.S. Forsythe and L.F. Croft news item, Chilliwack Progress, 6 Nov 1912, p. 5
    About Forsythe taking over Croft's Mee Studio and Croft moving to Vancouver to work for Richard Broadbridge.

  • Notes 
    • STATUS: Commercial.
    • BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Immigrating in the early 1900s, he worked in Winnipeg, MB, in 1906 as an engineer and boiler inspector. He and his wife Hilda were enumerated in the 1906 census of the Prairie provinces. The 1906 census gives his age as 40, his birthplace as England and their year of immigration as 1904.

      In 1908-1909 he operated in partnership as the Broadbridge-Bullen Photo Company and in 1910-1911 under the name Broadbridge Commercial Photo Company. In the 1911 business directory the Advertisers' Corporation of B.C. Ltd. was listed as the proprietor of the Broadbridge Commercial Photo Company.

      Enumerated in the 1911 Canada census, he was again age 40, born in England, with an immigration date of 1902 and a nationality of Canadian. By 1911 he and his wife had a son and daughter and her mother was living with them.

      One of his more interesting series of landscape views and outdoor portraits documented the BC portion of Thomas W. Wilby's cross-Canada trip by automobile in 1912.

      Broadbridge also advertised himself as a cinematographer, though no motion pictures credited to him are known to exist. Many of his photographs were also released as postcards.

      One of the finest of Edwardian-era Vancouver photographers, he moved to Australia around 1915 or 1916 and remained there for the rest of his life. His wife remained behind in Vancouver with their children and lived out her life there. She remarried in 1929, called herself a spinster (single) and used her father-in-law and mother-in-law's names on her marriage registration record.
    • IDENTIFYING MARKS: Print surface usually captioned, numbered, dated and signed or marked "Broadbridge".

  • Sources 
    1. [S46] COLLECTION: BVIPA.
      Prints and possibly glass negatives in George Allen collection.

    2. [S872] COLLECTION: BL (Reliability: 3).
      Canadian Copyright Collection (prints). Some digital facsimile available through Wikimedia Commons by searching for "Richard Broadbridge"; URL (accessed 31 Dec 2016): https://commons.wikimedia.org

    3. [S45] COLLECTION: BVAA.
      Prints

    4. [S138] COLLECTION: BVAUS.
      Uno Langmann Family Collection of British Columbia Photographs: postcards

    5. [S134] COLLECTION: BVA.
      Glass negatives

    6. [S723] Census of the Northwest Provinces 1906.
      Province of Manitoba, District Winnipeg, Sub-district 4f, p. 41, line 19; census is dated 3 Jul 1906.

    7. [S1116] Peel's Prairie Provinces (Web site), (Edmonton: University of Alberta Libraries).
      Henderson's Winnipeg city directory for .... Winnipeg: Henderson Directories, 1906, p. 342.

    8. [S722] Census of Canada 1911.
      Province of BC, District no. 12, Enumeration district no. 35 in Vancouver, p. 18, line 15

    9. [S339] Voters List, (Victoria, B.C.: Province of British Columbia, 1874-), 1911, Ref. NW 324.1 B862.
      Vancouver

    10. [S400] Patricia Pierce, Pierce (1985), (Don Mills, Ont.: Stoddart, 1985), 70, 112.

    11. [S788] HENVAN07, (Vancouver: Henderson Publishing, 1907).
      Vancouver: not listed

    12. [S790] HENVAN08, (Vancouver: Henderson Publishing, 1908).
      Vancouver: not listed

    13. [S791] HENVAN09, (Vancouver: Henderson Publishing, 1909), 520.
      Vancouver: Broadbridge Richard of Broadbridge-Bullen Photo Co lvs 1131 Granville

    14. [S698] HENVAN10, (Vancouver: Henderson Publishing, 1910), 571.
      Vancouver: Broadbridge Richard of Broadbridge Commercial Photo Co lvs 4, 1217 Richards

    15. [S732] HEN10, (Vancouver: Henderson Publishing, 1910), 1122.
      Vancouver: Broadbridge Commercial Photo Co Richard Broadbridge prop 330 Homer

    16. [S795] HENVAN11, (Vancouver: Henderson Publishing, 1911), 509.
      Vancouver: Broadbridge Richard of Broadbridge Commercial Photo Co h 164 12th Ave E

    17. [S797] HENVAN12, (Vancouver: Henderson Publishing, 1912), 598.
      Vancouver: Broadbridge Richard, Commercial Photography, Suite 7 and 8, 330 Homer St. Phone Seymour 6326.

    18. [S746] HENVAN13, (Vancouver: Henderson Directory Co., 1913), 644.
      Vancouver: Broadbridge Richard photogr 330 Homer h 373 8th Av E

    19. [S747] HENVAN14, (Vancouver: Henderson Directory Co., 1914), 675.
      Vancouver: Broadbridge Richard photogr 7, 330 Homer h 857 same

    20. [S748] HENVAN15, (Vancouver: Henderson Directory Co., 1915), 518.
      Vancouver: Broadbridge Richd photogr 7, 330 Homer h 857 same
      A Mrs. Hilda Broadbridge also lives at 857 Homer St.

    21. [S749] HENVAN16, (Vancouver: Henderson Directory Co., 1916).
      Vancouver: not listed, but Mrs. Hilda Broadbridge lives at 217 Georgia St.

    22. [S667] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, FamilySearch.org (Web site).
      Hilda Sara Groombridge [family tree]
      URL (accessed 15 Apr 2021): https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G97V-5J7

    23. [S924] Ancestry.ca (Web site).
      James Richard Broadbridge [family tree]
      URL (accessed 15 Apr 2021): https://www.ancestrylibrary.ca/family-tree/person/tree/37736446/person/19148008231/facts

    24. [S667] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, FamilySearch.org (Web site).
      James Richard Broadbridge [family tree]
      URL (accessed 16 Apr 2021): https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/G97V-L5D