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Photographic Albums
Martha Langford, PhD.
The Family Album
Charles-Philippe Beaubien, a lawyer, born in Montreal in 1870, was a passionate amateur photographer who compiled many albums. According to his granddaughter, Gretta Chambers, these albums often opened with pictures that he took on his travels. In the Charles-Philippe Beaubien Album 1903-1908 (MP-1990.42), a European tour, beautifully photographed, leads into pictures of the Beaubien family at their city and country homes. Beaubien photographed their rituals, pastimes, playfulness, and reflective moments. As a member of this charmed circle, Beaubien's snapshot style is by no means objective. On the contrary, he seeks photographic opportunities to express the closeness and spontaneity of his family. Photography is a way of participating in family life.
The albums in the collection of the McCord Museum remind us that there are many ways of defining ‘family' and representing this unit photographically. The Frothingham and Benson albums (N-1986.85.1-48, N-1986.86.1-74, and N-1986.87.1-32) are illuminating in this regard. Covering several generations, they show how photography could be used to illustrate and strengthen the family. As early as the 1870s, the Frothinghams were confirmed photographic enthusiasts who patronized William Notman & Sons for cartes-de-visite and cabinet cards, including hilarious family groups ‘toboganning' on a Notman photographic set. The daughters' poses displayed their mutual affection and individual talents for music. Milestones are marked; rituals are celebrated. The Frothinghams also commissioned photographs of family, friends, and servants at their country home at Rivière du Loup. When Etheldred Norton Frothingham became Mrs George Benson, she continued the family tradition. Beginning her album with pictures of her own childhood, she then commissioned a Notman studio portrait to chronicle the arrival of each of her children. The two boys and one girl are then photographed in charming group portraits as they grow. This ritual continues until the onset of the First World War, when the eldest poses in his uniform. A curiosity in the Benson family album is the virtual absence of the father, George Benson, who unlike his in-laws, seems to have avoided photographic opportunities. The Benson album carries on a tradition from the Frothingham side.
Looking at albums in museum collections brings different family histories, and expressions of kinship, to light. The Lafleur Album (MP-0000.2155), compiled between 1880 and 1900, shows how private life, family life, and public history intersect. The album appears to have come from the family of Reverend Theodore Lafleur (1821-1907), a Baptist missionary active in Longueuil and Montreal and closely associated with the Grande-Ligne Mission, founded in 1835 by Swiss and French evangelists. Lafleur probably met his future wife, a French woman, while studying theology in Geneva. A history of Protestant evangelism in Québec is embedded in this family album whose portraits can be traced to studios in the Northeast of the United States, as well as the Notman studio in Montreal. At the same time, the album preserves the family's links to French relatives, as well as the daughter's school chums. This family album is the photographic centre of many circles – familial, social, and vocational.
Even when an album concentrates on family and close friends, the collection is far from static. Changes in family structure are continuous and albums reflect these shifts. Two Molson family albums illustrate private lives in transition. One of these albums (MP-0000.1768) is tied to the marriage of John Thomas Molson (1837-1910) and Lillias Savage (1839-1866). The album contains portraits of the couple and their daughter Lillias. After the mother's death, the album was continued, and indeed contains portraits of the second Mrs Molson, Jennie B. Butler (1850-1926) and the first children of this marriage. No larger than a prayer book, this album must have belonged to John Thomas Molson for it documents family from the perspective of a young husband, father, widower, husband again, and father of a growing family – the album corresponds to his joy, grief, and recovery. The J.T. Molson Album (MP-0000.2359) was likely compiled by Jennie B. Butler Molson, for there are no portraits of the first Mrs Molson and stepdaughter Lillias is seen within an extended family of children, aunts, and uncles from both sides. This larger album is also a more public document that confirms the cohesion of a blended family.
