The Strickland family photograph album contains approximately 124 photographs related to the Strickland family of Ontario, Canada.
The album is disbound and photographs are mounted on eight loose 35 x 43 cm board pages. The original sequence of the pages is unclear and several images appear more than once. Most photographs are studio portraits of individuals, group portraits taken in front of buildings, or scenic views. At least one of the studio portraits is the work of Montreal photographer William Notman. Several images appear to be half-images taken from stereographs.
Images of interest include views of the homes of Catharine Parr Traill and Col. Samuel Strickland on Lake Katchewanooka, Col. Strickland with his family and Traill holding a child, a Native American family beside a lake, a canoeing party and canoe portaging, a view of the front of “Westove” (Traill’s home after 1860) next to Christ Church, possible portraits of Traill as well as Susanna and John Moodie, a party on the front lawn of Col. Strickland’s property engaged in bird hunting and croquet, the grounds of the University of Toronto, and the musical group the Montreal Bell Ringers. Also of note are multiple portraits of children ranging from toddlers to adolescents as well as views of five unidentified buildings likely located in Lakefield, staged images of lumber camps, and an unidentified dam and bridge on a river.
The Strickland family was a prolific 19th century English literary family. Agnes Strickland (1796-1874), who wrote a series of books on the lives of English Queens, is perhaps the most well-known member of the family. While she remained in England, three of her siblings, Samuel Strickland, Catharine Parr, and Susanna Moodie, all relocated to Canada where they each embarked on literary careers of their own.
Colonel Samuel Strickland (1804-1867) immigrated to Canada in 1825. In 1832 he purchased eight miles of land along Lake Katechewanook in Duoro (then Lakefield). He published his best-known work, Twenty-Seven years in Canada West, or, The experience of an early settler, in 1853. His son Robert’s house at 200 Queen Street is featured prominently in this album.
Catharine Parr Traill (1802-1899) first moved to Ontario in 1832 and started a farm in Port Hope, Ontario. In 1834, she and her husband sold the land and moved to Lakefield, where her brother Col. Samuel helped them purchase a few acres. They sold this land in 1839 and moved around the area frequently. In 1860, she moved into a home she called "Westove". Her best known writings are her works on the natural history of Canada as well as accounts of her time as a settler titled The backwoods of Canada; being letters from the wife of an emigrant officer, illustrative of the domestic economy of British America and The Female Emigrant's Guide, and Hints on Canadian Housekeeping.
Susanna Moodie (1803-1885) moved to Canada in 1832 with her husband John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie (1797-1869). Her memoirs Roughing It in the Bush, or, Life in Canada and Life in the clearings versus the bush were first published in 1852 and 1853 respectively. The Moodies lived on Bridge Street in Belleville until John’s death in 1869. After her husband’s passing, Susanna lived between the towns of Seaforth and Toronto.
