Practice Reading: Alexander Henderson (1831-1913)

Alexander Henderson was born in 1831 in Scotland, the son of a successful merchant. His grandfather, also named Alexander, founded the family business and served as the first chairman of the National Bank of Scotland. The family owned extensive land, including the Press Estate, a 650-acre farmland about 35 miles southeast of Edinburgh. They often resided at Press Castle, a large mansion on the northern edge of the property, where Alexander spent much of his childhood fishing in nearby streams and playing on the beach near Eyemouth.

Even during his schooling at Murcheston Academy on the outskirts of Edinburgh, Henderson returned to Press on weekends. In 1849, he began a three-year apprenticeship in accounting, although he never had a fondness for a business career and did it to appease his family. However, in October 1855, he emigrated to Canada with his wife, Agnes Elder Robertson, and settled in Montreal.

Henderson acquired photography skills around 1857 in Montreal and quickly pursued it as a serious hobby. He became close friends and colleagues with William Notman, a Scottish-Canadian photographer. In 1860, the two men undertook a photographic expedition to Niagara Falls and collaborated on experiments involving magnesium flares as artificial light sources in 1865. Both were founding members of the Art Association of Montreal and Henderson chaired the association’s inaugural meeting at Notman’s studio on January 11, 1860.

In spite of their friendship, their styles of photography were quite different. While Notman’s landscapes were noted for their bold realism, Henderson for the first 20 years of his career produced romantic images, showing the strong influence of the British landscape tradition. His artistic and technical progress was rapid and in 1865 he published his first major collection of landscape photographs. The publication had limited circulation (only seven copies have ever been found), and was called Canadian Views and Studies. The contents of each copy vary significantly and have proved a useful source for evaluating Henderson’s early work.

In 1866, he abandoned his business to establish a photographic studio, presenting himself as a portrait and landscape photographer. Around 1870, he shifted focus from portraiture to specialize in landscape photography and other scenes. His numerous photographs depicting urban life in street scenes, houses, and markets teem with human activity. While landscapes were his favorite subject, he often framed his compositions around human activities such as farming, ice cutting on rivers, or boating down wooded streams. There was ample demand for these scenes and others capturing aspects of the lumber industry, steamboats, and waterfalls, enabling him to sustain his livelihood. Prior to the late 1880s, there was little competition from amateur photography or hobbies due to the labor-intensive techniques and cumbersome equipment. People sought photographs as mementos of their travels or as gifts, prompting Henderson to display stock photographs at his studio for mounting, framing, or inclusion in albums.

Henderson frequently displayed his photographs in Montreal and internationally, including London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, New York, and Philadelphia. He achieved notable success in New York in 1877 and 1878, winning first prizes at the exhibition hosted by E and H T Anthony and Company for landscapes using the Lambertype process. In 1878, his work earned him a second prize at the world exhibition in Paris.

During the 1880s and 1890s, Henderson extensively traveled through Quebec and Ontario in Canada, documenting major cities in both provinces and numerous villages in Quebec. He had a particular fondness for wilderness areas and frequently journeyed by canoe on rivers such as the Blanche and du Lièvre. He made several trips to the Maritime Provinces and in 1872 sailed along the lower north shore of the St. Lawrence River by yacht. During this time, he captured photographs of the construction of the Intercolonial Railway in the lower St. Lawrence region. His work on this project led to a commission in 1875 from the railway to document the principal structures along the nearly completed line connecting Montreal to Halifax. Subsequent commissions from other railways followed. In 1876, he photographed bridges on the Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, and Occidental Railway between Montreal and Ottawa. In 1885, he ventured westward along the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to Rogers Pass in British Columbia, photographing the mountains and documenting the railway’s construction progress.

In 1892, Henderson accepted a full-time position with the CPR as manager of a newly established photographic department, which he was tasked to oversee. His responsibilities included spending four months annually in the field. During the summer of that year, he embarked on his second journey westward, extensively photographing along the railway route up to Victoria. He continued in this role until 1897 when he retired from photography altogether.

Upon Henderson's death in 1913, his vast collection of glass negatives remained stored in the basement of his residence. Today, collections of his work are housed at the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa and the McCord Museum of Canadian History in Montreal.

Queries 1-8

Do the statements below agree with the information provided in Reading Passage 1?

In boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE           if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE          if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN    if there is no information on this

1   Henderson rarely visited the area around Press estate when he was younger.

2   Henderson pursued a business career because it was what his family wanted.

3   Henderson and Notman were surprised by the results of their 1865 experiment.

4   There were many similarities between Henderson’s early landscapes and those of Notman.

5   The studio that Henderson opened in 1866 was close to his home.

6   Henderson gave up portraiture so that he could focus on taking photographs of scenery.

7   When Henderson began work for the Intercolonial Railway, the Montreal to Halifax line had been finished.

8   Henderson’s last work as a photographer was with the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Questions 9-13

Fill in the blanks below

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet.

Alexander Henderson

Early life

•     was born in Scotland in 1831 – father was a 9 …………………………

•     trained as an accountant and moved to Canada in 1855

Start of a photographic career

•     established a photographic studio in 1866

•     captured urban life scenes but had a preference for landscape photography

•     people bought Henderson’s photos because photography took up considerable time and the 10 ……………………… was heavy

•     the photographs Henderson sold were 11 …………………………… or souvenirs

Travelling as a professional photographer

•     extensively journeyed across Quebec and Ontario during the 1870s and 1880s

•     took many trips along eastern rivers in a 12…………………………..

•     served in Canadian railroads from 1875 to 1897

•     worked for CPR in 1885 and photographed the 13 …………………………… and the railway at Rogers Pass

Solutions

1. FALSE (Đoạn 1, “The family had extensive landholding in Scotland … Alexander spent much of his childhood in the area → Alexander dành nhiều thời gian ở đây.)

2. TRUE (Đoạn 2, “In 1849 he began a three-year apprenticeship … he stayed with it to please his family. → Theo đuổi nghề kinh doanh theo ước nguyện của gia đình.)

3. NOT GIVEN (Không có thông tin về việc ông thể hiện sự bất ngờ về thí nghiệm 1865)

4. FALSE (Đoạn 4, “their styles of photography were quite different” → Khác biệt chứ không tương đồng.)

5. NOT GIVEN (Không có thông tin về vị trí cụ thể của studio.)

6. TRUE (Đoạn 5, “From about 1870 he dropped portraiture to specialize in landscape photography and other views.” → Từ bỏ chụp ảnh chân dung để chuyển sang chụp phong cảnh.)

7. FALSE (Đoạn 7, “This undertaking led in 1875 to a commission from the railway to record the principal structures along the almost-completed line connecting Montreal to Halifax.” → gần xong nhưng chưa hoàn thành.)

8. TRUE (Đoạn 8, “In 1892 Henderson accepted a full-time position with the CPR as manager of a photographic department which he was to set up and administer.”)

9. Merchant (Đoạn 1, “Alexander Henderson was born in Scotland in 1831 and was the son of a successful merchant.”)

10. Equipment (Đoạn 5, “because of the time-consuming techniques involved and the weight of equipment.”

11. Gifts (Đoạn 5, “People wanted to buy photographs as souvenirs of a trip or as gifts.”)

12. Canoe (Đoạn 7, “He was especially fond of the wilderness and often travelled by canoe on the Blanche…”)