Laurence, Joseph

• Main Author: Riggs, Bertram G., 1954-
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1995
• Subjects: Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/ead/id/290

This album of photographs appears to be the work of Simeon H. Parsons (1844-1908), one of Newfoundland's earliest professional, self- - taught and award-winning photographers. The photographs are very much in the style for which Parsons was noted and cover a wide - geographic area, including the Burin Peninsula and coastal Labrador, in addition to more easily accessible areas such as St. John's and eastern - Newfoundland communities. Internal evidence dates some of the images to around 1884-1885, and given that the recipient of the album, - Joseph Laurence, died in October 1886, it would appear safe to assume that the album was compiled during those middle years of the 1880s. - Some of the images may date earlier, possibly from stock photographs Parsons may have had on hand. - - The album contains some rare images of St. John's streets and buildings that were later destroyed in the 1892 fire that ravaged most of the - downtown of the city. It also contains images of people at work in the fishery, particularly on the coast of Labrador; various communities on the - Burin Peninsula and on the east coast of Newfoundland; rural scenes, including rivers, lakes and waterfalls; icebergs; groups of people, - particularly several gatherings of Methodist clergy, some of whom Laurence was probably responsible for sending to Newfoundland. - - The album should prove beneficial to researchers interested in architectural and municipal development, the development of Methodism, the - history of photography, the work of Simeon Parsons, and a variety of other subjects pertaining to Newfoundland in the latter half of the - Nineteenth Century. - - -