Notman Photographic Archives receives UNESCO Memory of the World Register distinction
MONTREAL — The Notman Photographic Archives, a collection of photographs described as a Canadian treasure, has been inscribed into UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
The McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal is the home of the collection, which contains 400,000 prints and 200,000 glass plate negatives as well as records and ledgers from the Montreal Notman studio between 1856 and 1935.
William Notman’s studio employed people across Canada and the United States, and the collection includes portraits, cityscapes and landscapes from coast to coast that the museum’s head describes as shedding light on the construction of Canada over an 80 year period.
Notman brought unique innovation and esthetic to portrait photography, which the museum says helped him earn an international reputation as the most prominent Canadian photographer of his era.
