The winter garden: Montreal

notman-house-1933-montreal-mccord-museumSt. Margaret’s Home, Montreal, 1933, via Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum Commons on flickr.

At the time of the photo, the house — built in 1845 — was a small hospital run by the Anglican Sisters of St. Margaret.  It still exists today and is called Notman House for photographer William Notman who lived there in the late 19th century.

I really covet those plant supports between the windows.

The winter garden: amaryllis

Amaryllis4, McCall flower portraits, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of AlbertaAmaryllis, Alberta, Canada, ca. 1930, hand-colored glass lantern slide by William Copeland McCalla, via Provincial Archives of Alberta Commons on flickr (all images here).

Amaryllis2, McCall flower portraits, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta

The photographer, William McCalla, was interested in botany and photography from an early age. He studied at Cornell University in the early 1890s and later worked in western Canada as a farmer, librarian, and Natural History teacher.  While teaching from 1925 to 1938, he made over 1,000 lantern slides of plants and animals as visual aids.

Amaryllis1, McCall flower portraits, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta

The slides were donated to the Archives by his son and granddaughter in 1982 and 2007.

Amaryllis3, McCall flower portraits, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta

Vintage landscape: mums

Mums in Ottawa, Library and Archives Canada, flickrA display of chrysanthemums in a Central Experimental Farm greenhouse, Ottawa, ca. 1920s, photographer unknown, via Library and Archives Canada (under CC license).

Life in gardens: Ontario

Both Home, Slave Lake, Cloyne & District Historical Society
The Both children and mother outside their home and cottage garden at Slave* Lake, Ontario, Canada, ca. early 1960s, via Cloyne and District Historical Society Commons on flickr.


*Probably named for the Slave or Awokanak Native Americans of the region.

Vintage landscape: portraits

McCall flower portrait 13, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta“Early Double Tulip: Van de Hoeff,” Alberta, Canada, ca. 1930, hand-colored glass lantern slide by William Copeland McCalla, via Provincial Archives of Alberta Commons on flickr (all images here).

McCall flower portrait 17, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of AlbertaFritillaria Pudica Spreng – Yellow or Mission Bell.”

The photographer, William McCalla, was interested in botany and photography from an early age. He studied at Cornell University in the early 1890s and later worked in western Canada as a farmer, librarian, and Natural History teacher.  While teaching from 1925 to 1938, he made over 1,000 lantern slides of plants and animals as visual aids.

The slides were donated to the Archives by his son and granddaughter in 1982 and 2007.

McCall flower portrait 2, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta“Cross-section of poppy capsule.”

McCall flower portrait 9, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta“How Violets scatter their seeds: capsule open: [capsule] empty.”

McCall flower portrait 16, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta“Trillium sessile: Californicum wats.”

McCall flower portrait 12, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta“Gladiolus Star of Bethlehem.”

McCall flower portrait 14, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta“Mountain Ash.”

McCall flower portrait 15, ca. 1930, Provincial Archives of Alberta“Phlox Drummondii.”

You can see more of McCalla’s beautiful flower portraits here.