| Abstract: | Abstract The announcement of the daguerreotype process to the French scientific community in August 1839 spread through the Western world like a shockwave. The British North American colonies comprising Canada East and Canada West (now Quebec and Ontario) and the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island were no exceptions. Rumours of the discovery had been published in Canadian newspapers as early as 3 May 1839.1 As early as 1840 we find advertisements in Canadian newspapers offering daguerreotype portraits by itinerant photographers who first made known and popularized the process. There are no extant examples of these first Canadian attempts.2 |
