Stuart Thomson
December 13 1881 - March 10 1960
Stuart Thomson Photography
PNE (official photographer)
UBC (official photographer)
Stuart Thomson
Stuart Thomson was born in Hampstead, England and moved to Australia as a
child in the 1880s. He worked for the Australian railway for twelve years, then
came to Vancouver in 1910, bought an 8x10 plate
camera, and took up photography full time. For the next fifty years he
took an average of 1,000 photographs per year. His motto was "Anything,
Anywhere, Anytime."
Stuart Thomson standing in door of his store
By 1912 Thomson had a corner storefront business at 501 West Georgia Street,
where he lived and worked until 1922.
In 1919 he took the first civilian aerial photographs in western Canada,
flying with pilot Ernie Hoy over Vancouver in an open-cockpit Curtiss byplane.
The same year he took a photograph of William (Bill) Boeing about to leave
Coal Harbor by seaplane with the first international bag of airmail
sent from Vancouver. In the 1920s he had studios at 342 and 321 West
Pender Street, by 1935 the store was at 1002 Robson Street, in 1940 at 916 Davie
Street, in 1950 at 2151 West Fourth Avenue, and finally at 2258 West Fourth.
Thomson advertisement
Over the years he became the official photographer for various organizations
in Vancouver. He took thousands of photographs of sports teams, teams of horses
and delivery wagons, ribbon-cuttings of monuments, buildings, and bridges, boat
launches, and firemen and police at work. He photographed visiting dignitaries and movie
stars including USA Presidents Harding and Teddy Roosevelt, Sun Yat-Sen, Winston Churchill,
the Prince of Wales, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, actor Clark Gable, and a leader of
the Ku Klux Klan in Shaughnessy.
Dante, 1919. Photograph Stuart Thomson
Photograph stamp
In 1954 the Vancouver Sun purchased 10,000 of his pre-1940 photographs, publishing selected images
in a regular historical feature in the paper, before donating them all to the Vancouver City
Archives in 1963. The Vancouver Public Library Northwest Collection, Main Branch, also has
more than 2,000 Thomson photographs in their collection.
3642 Dundas Street, c 1998
About 1940 Thomson hired June Phyllis Sherman as his assistant. She was the niece of
Vancouver artist Maud Sherman, and grand-daughter of
Vancouver pioneer Ruiter Stinson Sherman. Thomson moved into
their house at 3642 Dundas Street, where he boarded as a bachelor until his death in 1960.
By that time June was his business partner, and she took over the business after he
passed away. June quickly ended the business and went to work as a receptionist at Zephyr Motors.
June Sherman at Davie Street, Stuart Thomson photo
June Sherman 1939, Stuart Thomson photo, CVA-99-5071
Thomson retired on February 29 1960, less than two weeks before his death in Vancouver at the age of 78.
He was still resident at 3642 Dundas Street.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
References
Vancouver City Archives
Vancouver Public Library Northwest Collection
B.C. VITAL STATISTICS ON-LINE death (refer to BCVS)
Clippings
"Stuart Thomson's Camera Captured Vancouver History" by Eric Lindsay
Vancouver Sun, June 20 1955
"Stuart Thomson Dead"
Vancouver Sun, March 10 1960
"Pioneer of photography from the air dies here"
Vancouver Province, March 11 1960
"The man who did anything" by Aileen Campbell
Vancouver Express, March 23 1979
"Vancouver's early history is filled with flamboyant figures ... (but) our fascinating
past would not be complete without Stuart Thomson. ... "
From "History's Shutterbug" by Len Corbin
Vancouver Courier, January 27 2006
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