Frederick Dally

Frederick Dally (July 29, 1838 – July 28, 1914) was an English Canadian portrait and landscape photographer best known for his views of the Cariboo goldfields in British Columbia.

He was born on July 29, 1838, in Southwark, a district of London, England, the youngest of nine children. Educated at Christ's Hospital, London, he served an apprenticeship with a linen and woollen draper. At the age of 24, Frederick emigrated to Canada, arriving in Victoria on the Colony of Vancouver Island in September 1862. He opened up a dry goods store, and a few years later he sold his stock and set up a photographic gallery in June 1866. His commissions for photography in Victoria were varied, encompassing portraits of prominent citizens, public buildings, and street scenes, and he sometimes took pictures at the request of the Colonial Office. He also documented the presence of the government and that of the Royal Navy. A focal point of his business was marketing cartes de visites of First Nations people, including both studio and field images.

In August 1866, Dally accompanied the governor of Vancouver Island, Arthur Edward Kennedy, aboard the HMS Scout on its circumnavigation tour of Vancouver Island with stops to inspect local villages. On the west coast, he only managed to produce two negatives, but on the eastern side he had better results, photographing at Fort Rupert, Comox, Cowichan, and Nanaimo. At Cowichan he took a pair of photographs of salmon weirs which are the earliest examples known. In a view taken in the same locality, the full range of Dally's compositional powers can be seen in his depiction of a Coast Salish Quamichan village.

...
Wikipedia