Even before the process was made public by Louis Daguerre of France in 1839, reports on the mysterious "New Art of Sun Painting" had appeared in newspapers in Quebec City, Halifax and Toronto. By the fall of 1840, enterprising Americans opened "daguerreotype rooms" in Quebec City and Montreal, introducing the art of photography to Canada. Photographic technology and processes continued to be developed and refined but tended to be largely the domain of the professional. In 1888, with the introduction of the Kodak camera, photography became both economically and technically accessible to the amateur and as
with printing has become a pervasive feature of the manner in which we communicate and record our experiences.

From the professional studios of such people as Hannah Maynard (1870's) of Victoria, British Columbia to the family photo album, photography has illustrated the growth of Canada. The Museum's collection documents the technologies which made this possible.Cameras and accessories, photo processing, printing and studio equipment form the daguerrian era to the present are represented, reflecting its application by both professionals and amateurs.

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