Thomson, Stuart[1, 2, 3, 4]
1881 - 1960 (78 years)
-
Name Thomson, Stuart Birth 13 Dec 1881 Hampstead, Eng., UK 
[5, 6] Gender Male Business Address/Year 1911-1934 Vancouver, BC Business Address/Year 1935 Vancouver, BC [7] Address:
1002 Robson St.
Vancouver, BC
CanadaBusiness Address/Year 1936-1960 Vancouver, BC Death 10 Mar 1960 Vancouver, BC [5] Cremation 12 Mar 1960 Mountain View Cemetery, Vancouver, BC [5] Association Dorais, Crosby Shepherd (Relationship: Photographer) Association Brightman, Harold Edward (Relationship: Photographer) Person ID I683 Camera Workers | T, vol. 2, 1901-1950 Last Modified 11 Mar 2020
-
Photos ![Corner of Burrard [Street] and Robson [Street] showing Bank of Toronto on the left and Stuart Thomson's storefront on the right](photos/t/thumb_thomson_stuart_storefront_Burrard%26Robson19351222_YVRArchives-resized.jpg "Corner of Burrard [Street] and Robson [Street] showing Bank of Toronto on the left and Stuart Thomson's storefront on the right")
Corner of Burrard [Street] and Robson [Street] showing Bank of Toronto on the left and Stuart Thomson's storefront on the right 
Portrait of Stuart Thomson 
Stuart Thomson holding a Goertz-Anschutz Press camera
Photographed during a Shell Oil Co. Super Shell campaignStuart Thomson holding a Goertz-Anschutz Press camera
Taken during a Shell Oil Co. Super Shell campaign
-
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."
-
Sources - [S45] COLLECTION: BVAA (Reliability: 3).
Negatives (ca. 10,000 pre-1940 negatives; a portion of these are accessible as CVA 99/1-2670 - [S134] COLLECTION: BVA.
Negatives - [S339] Voters List, (Victoria, B.C.: Province of British Columbia, 1874-), 1911, Ref. NW 324.1 B862.
Vancouver - [S986] "Anything, Anywhere, Anytime", (Vancouver, BC: City of Vancouver Archives, 1979).
- [S652] BVIPA death registration index.
Registration no. 1960-09-003813 (microfilm B13246); digital facsimile URL (accessed 13 Apr 2017): http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Image/Genealogy/3a27a1b5-c5b6-44c4-aac7-6a5f2f0cceea - [S709] BVAA archival records.
Thomson, Stuart; URL (accessed 13 Apr 2017): http://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/thomson-stuart - [S769] SUN35, (Vancouver: Sun Directories, 1935), 21 Jun 2015, 1444 (Reliability: 3).
Thomson Stuart photog 1002 Robson
- [S45] COLLECTION: BVAA (Reliability: 3).