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The Explorer

Alexander Henderson spent decades photographing the province’s dazzling landscapes and burgeoning cities. And his work was almost lost forever.

Alexander Henderson was part artist, part documentarian. In the late 19th century, he was one of the most prominent photographers in Canada, shooting lively urban scenes and idyllic rural landscapes in a sweeping style reminiscent of the great Romantic painters.

Henderson’s photographs are pure Canadiana: a cluster of ice skaters on Montreal’s harbour, Indigenous people camping on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, railmen working on the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. His images are as haunting as they are beautiful. The subjects often stare coldly into the camera from far in the distance, seeming more like spectres than human beings.

Henderson chronicled a crucial period in Canadian history. British colonialism was boosting Quebec’s population, driving industry and shaping cultural life, all the while encroaching on Indigenous territory. Immigrants flocked to Montreal, where milling, brewing, textiles and shipbuilding had replaced the fur trade. Railway expansion turned the city into a major trade and travel hub, and cultural institutions like McGill and the Museum of Fine Arts were opening up. Between 1844 and 1911, Montreal’s population swelled from nearly 45,000 to more than 500,000, making it Canada’s biggest metropolis. (Toronto usurped it soon after.) Henderson was prolific during this period...

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