One Hour in the Past E205 – Photography

E205

Have you ever noticed that a simple information search can lead you in strange and wonderful directions? As in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, historical research can lead you down a winding rabbit hole that might take you off your original path and lead you to new and amazing historical places!

This podcast series starts with that premise!

Adrian Petry, Visitors Services Coordinator and Kathleen Powell, Supervisor of Historical Services and Curator, both from the St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre, have challenged each other to explore the weird and wonderful places that one hour of research on a topic will take them. Join them as they share their findings!

On this episode…

We are exploring the history of photography. Kathleen talks with special guest Phil Cristi, Director of Community, Recreation and Culture Services for the City of St.Catharines.

We discuss the history of photography and talk about the oldest images in the Museum’s collection. This image of an unknown child is one of the oldest in our collection. It is an Ambrotype portrait of a child from sometime between 1851-1880. This photo is part of the Merritt family collection.

One interesting photographic trend was the stereoview. Kathleen and Phil talk about stereoviewers in the podcast and in case you are not sure what that looks like, here is one from the Museum’s collection.

The evolution of the stereoviewer is the modern day Viewmaster. Here’s a photo of a Viewmaster from the Museum’s collection.