Stephen Joseph Thompson

Excerpt from: Camera Workers: The British Columbia, Alaska & Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858-1950 - T - Volume 1 (1858-1900)

© 1999-2007 By David Mattison

NAME: Thompson, Stephen Joseph.

LIFE DATES: 1864 05 27-1929 08 07.

BIRTHPLACE: Bailieboro, ON.

PLACE OF DEATH: Vancouver.

WHERE ACTIVE: Port Hope, ON New Westminster Vancouver.

BUSINESS ADDRESS/YEAR: Columbia St., opposite Colonial Hotel/1886 10-? (Thompson & Bovill) Columbia St. (Hamley Block)/1887-1890 620 Columbia St./1890-1898 610 Granville St. (Vancouver)/1897 12-1900+.

HOME ADDRESS/YEAR: Agnes St. (Spring Villes)/1889-1890 221 Columbia St./1891-1894 Burr Block/1895.

WORK INTERVAL: 1886 10-1900+.

STATUS: Commercial.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY: Arriving in New Westminster from, it is believed, New York City, he set up a partnership with one or both of the Bovill brothers as Thompson & Bovill late in October 1886. By 1889 he was operating on his own. He established a branch studio in Vancouver in December 1897. For a while after the New Westminster studio had been destroyed by fire on September 11, 1898, he maintained a Vancouver and a New Westminster studio. He was married on December 29, 1897 to Constance Victoria Clute in New Westminster.

Thompson was a prolific and versatile photographer who was equally at home in portrait and landscape work. He photographed extensively along the Canadian Pacific Railway throughout the 1890s. Thompson visited the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Two years later he was commissioned to obtain views of farms around Edmonton. In 1898 he accompanied an official expedition to northern BC and Wrangel led by the Deputy Minister of Marine and Fisheries, Louis Coste.

COLLECTIONS: ABA (prints) BVAA (glass negatives) BVIPA (album and prints) OOA QMCP (album).

IDENTIFYING MARKS: Thompson identified his negatives several different ways. The most common are explained here: before relocating to Vancouver negatives titled and marked " S.J. Thompson, Photo., New Westminster, B.C." after moving to Vancouver negatives titled and marked " S.J. Thompson, Photo., Vancouver" at some point Thompson began numbering his negatives (these numbers may begin in the 300s and proceed to at least the 1350s) after opening a branch studio in New Westminster negatives numbered, captioned and marked " Thompson, Vancouver and New Westminster" some negatives not captioned but marked " Thompson Photo." some negatives numbered (e.g., " T747" or " 765T" ), captioned and marked " Shaw Bros. Ltd." (Vancouver firm). The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Archives) has a print with " S. J. Thomson" [sic] on the verso (ABA print PA10-89).

REFERENCES/ADVERTISING AND SOURCES (IMAGES): MAL87 WIL89 WIL90 HEN91 WIL92 WIL93 WIL94 WIL95 HEN97 WIL97 HEN98 HEN99 WIL99 HEN00 World, 1893 07 10/1 News-Advertiser, 1895 08 07/6 1897 12 19/8 1897 12 30/6 1898 02 27/8 1898 04 15/8 Province, 1929 08 07/1 (obit.) Who's Who In Western Canada (1911) Letter, Joan Schwartz to Mattison, 1978 01 04 Mattison (1987b) Letter, Mrs. E. French (great-niece), London, ON, to Mattison.