The Postcard
Whenever Gilles Aubé asks me to do something, at the end of the job, I end up knowing something I didn't at the beginning of the task. Back when we were shooting to support the Tuques Bleus snowshoe race on Mount Royal, Gilles loaned me a postcard he'd found online and asked me to try to enlarge the image. The image purports to be a Field Battery on St-Helen's Island sometime between 1880 and 1900 or so.
That's a very loose bracket and I'd love to narrow it down somewhat more, but unfortunately neither the photo nor postcard contain enough definitive information. The guns being towed cannot be clearly seen and could be anything from 9-pdr RML's to 12-pdr RBL's. The blude unifrom with pillbox cap was extensively worn in the last quarter of the 19th C and was still being worn as a dress uniform in the 20th C. In fact, it's still authorized for full dress. There is no date anywhere on the postcard, though the publisher is identified on the back as "Valentine & Sons Publishing Co Ltd. This company. This company, was founded in Scotland in 1825 by John Valentine and by 1851, his sone James started producing portrait photos, and published their first postcards in 1898. They opened offices in Montreal and Toronto in 1903 and 1906 respectively which doesn't mean that's when the photo was shot. The initials JV at the bottom right of the image surely stand for "John or James Valentine," but again, no idea when it was shot. If anyone has any ideas, or information, please pass them on.
More on the Valentine's postcard business can be found here: http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/pp_v/pp_valentine_james_family.htm
The Windmills Of My Mind
In an earlier post entitled "Circular Trajectory" I wrote at length about my the first time I set foot in the Cotes-des-Neiges Armoury. For decades, I had believed, based on fragmentary memories that this had taken place in 1967. When I digitized some of the negatives my father had shot that day and saw some people in the photos wearing uniforms that weren't introduced until 1968, I was compelled revise this estimate to 1968 based on the evidence that some of the figures in one of the photos appeared to be wearing the CF green uniform.
Even this date came under challenge from Philippe Lefebvre who's actvities within the cadet movement in those years put him in good standing to challenge my assertions. The truth be told, my memory was very vague, and over the years, I even began to doubt them myself. Had I even been there or were my memories based on seeing photographs my father had shot? Did my father really ask me if I wanted to come see"Boy Scouts" shoot or had he simply told me that's where he was going? Why did he call them"Boy Scouts" when they were cadets? Did they really shoot their rifles on the riding rink instead of the range? Had I imagined being there? Were my memories implanted? What if I'm a replicant?
The exchange with Philippe prompted me to look more closely at the negatives I hadn't digitized, to see if I could find anything in them that would answer these questions. The very first one I re-examined using my father's vintage Agfa loupe contained all the answers. The firing line in this one, was clearly made up of lads in Boy Scout, not cadet uniforms, proving that they too had participated in the event. And behind the firing line, at a safe distance and as clear as day, stands me, looking around 5-6 years old. I'm even standing pretty much where I remembered standing. My memories were real, mostly accurate and most importantly, I am NOT a Replicant! Yay!The photo evidence seems pretty clear to me. I turned six in late January of 1968. The Canadian Forces were officially unified on Feb 1st, 1968. I am dressed here as for the late winter or early spring, and there appears to be snow piled up against the windows on the south side of the Armoury, (in another photo) therefore, these photos were probably shot in March or early April of 1968, before I'd finished kindergarten, before the Beatles broke up, and before men even orbited the moon, let alone land on it.
The relatively few individuals wearing the CF uniform are probably members of the Regular Force and were probably among the first to be issued the uniforms. Of course, if my idiot father had bothered to date his negatives as I date my digital files instead of simply numbering them, this would have been a lot easier to settle. What I find gratifying in all this is that so many decades later, my memories were proven mostly accurate. What I find depressing is how quickly the time has passed since this photo was taken. Ubique!
Gary Menten,
Photographer
