Mary Ann:

I came across your website, Photographs from the Past, and want to share you this story and JPG.  You don't have to add this to your site, if you don't want to.

It is an early photograph portrait of a American Loyalist from Eastern Townships of Quebec.  There are no other known paper photographs from North America from the 1840's.  This 1848 photo is the earliest known extant portrait, extremely rare North American original paper photograph from the late 1840's.

 Paper prints were rare stateside(USA) in the 1840's, but very common in England.  Paper photography was introduced in 1841.

THE STORY:  I've had this photograph in my possession since I was 12 years old in 1981.  Five years ago, I found an Indenture (land deed), watermarked 1846, from Hamilton.  The Indenture was printed by Henry Rowsell, printer, bookseller, and stationer, Toronto, 184_, with a watermark crest and watermark.

When I held the paper to the light I discovered it has the same watermark crest as my photograph paper mount.  The watermark has three fleur des lis on top of a crown, and another one on the bottom of the crest upside down.  Could this be the clue to the mystery of this photograph?

The watermark used by Henry Rowsell (1807-1890) might mean that the paper was made in what is now Quebec.  Roswell was active in his own name from 1834-64.  Many of the immigrant photographers working in Montreal or Quebec City between 1840 and 1860 had come from England and Scotland.

The photograph is a portrait of "Judith Simpson Aged 74 A.D. 1848" (written in brown ink on paper mount) and the image measures 11.5 cm. by 16 cm. in very fine condition.  The paper mount measures 17.8 cm. by 22.3 cm. Photographer unknown, but records in Canadian journals identify 2 Americans, Halsey & Sadd who set up studios in Montreal and Quebec City late 1840, and a Mrs. Fletcher in Montreal in 1841, probably the first woman photographer in Canada.  It has a warm brown and grayish-green hue, and  slightly tinted red cheeks, with a blindstamp on the paper mount which is a fleur des lis in a circle.  It has a rough surface with wrinkling and unequal texture.  It is among the earliest examples on paper, and are extremely rare and valuable, for a North American example.  In Robert Pols book: Dating Old Photographs, it mentions "Calotype portraits are most likely to measure between 4" and 5" inches one way and 6" and 7" the other.  The surface is matte, with a very faint sheen."  My photo measures 4 1/2" by 6 1/4" inches and has a faint sheen. I have read that during the years following its invention (1841), many improvements were made to this process.  Calotypes prints are capable of showing quite fine detail.  Other photograph examples on paper, which this 1848 photo could be, from the 1840's are experimental salt print, even rarer, chrysotype or argentotype.  It cannot by a cannotype because they were blue.  The task was arduous: long exposure times, erratic temperatures and difficult working conditions contributed to the low success rate of the early photographers. 

Very few identified images have survived.  The question?  Was this lady living in Canada?  Then the Genelogical Research Library mentioned there was a SIMPSON, JUDITH land record index, living in 1807 in Quebec, Canada.  She is probably a American Loyalist civilian that came to live in the Eastern Townships of English speaking Quebec.  The director of the library said "the photograph of the person gave him some strength to believe that she is highly likely from a Loyalist family". 

Finally, the Eastern Townships Research Centre researcher, provided the documents "S volume of the Crown's land grantees, is the name Judith Simpson.  She was in Wolfe County and given 400 acres in the Township of Ham on July 29, 1807 (today known as Ham-Nord, Quebec).  It was registered as a C grant on pg. 161.  Page 1082 of the printed list.  She was most likely the daughter of a Revolutionary War veteran, and married to (widow of Andrew) from 1802 to probably his death in 1825 in Lower Canada (now Quebec) for 23 years.

Checked the Upper Canada (now Ontario) records there was no Judith Simpson.  Also, in a book titled "Ham-Nord d'hier a aujourd'hui" on page 18, Judith Simpson is mentioned "Les autres concessionnaires de l'annee 1807 furent".  One of the first 13 settlers to this region.  She would have been born circa 1773-74, and possibly the oldest identified person, and earliest Loyalist portrait known in a paper photographic image in North America. 

She is wearing her decade-old best dress and day cap.  Her indoor bonnet and dress with full sleeves date from the 1830's.  This photograph was featured in Family Chronicle's May 2004 published book, More Dating Old Photographs 1840-1929, on page 116.  It was also featured in an article in the Family Tree Magazine June 2005 on pg. 78, by Maureen Taylor, a Boston, Mass. genealogical researcher.

After years of searching there is proof it is of Eastern Canadian (Ham-Nord, Quebec) descent.  I have asked and searched nearly ever institution, galleries, museums, archives, etc... in Canada and U.S., but no other Canadian & American paper photos from the 1840's in their collections have surfaced.  It is a rare, unique, historically important, early Canadian photograph technological example from the 1840's Canada and Quebec English-speaking heritage.

Sincerely,

George Pek

Hamilton, Ontario