Introduction

In the summer of 1860, Queen Victoria's son, Albert Edward, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne, visited Canada to officially open the bridge. To commemorate the visit, the Canadian government presented the Prince with a portfolio of photographs taken by William Notman.

Being a good businessman, Notman understood the promotional possibilities that these photographs represented, and made a duplicate set which he retained. Notman sent his duplicate presentation set to the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where he was awarded a medal "for excellence in an extensive series of photographs." After the exhibition, it was returned to Montreal where it was on display in the Notman studio in 1864. It remained in the Notman collection through several studio moves. When the Notman family sold the company in 1935, they retained the set and eventually donated it to the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal in the mid 1950s, where it is now part pf the Notman Photographic Archives.