'Barrack Hill Ottawa', 1860.

A photograph of Barrack Hill in Ottawa, Canada, taken by William McFarlane Notman (1826-1891) in 1860 during the Royal Visit to Canada of Albert, Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII (1841-1910). In 1858, Ottawa was declared the capital of the United Province of Canada. During his visit in 1860, Prince Albert attended a ceremony to lay the cornerstone for a new parliamentary building to be constructed on Barrack Hill. William McFarlane Notman was born in Scotland but emigrated to Canada in 1856. He opened a photographic studio in Montreal and later established a successful chain of studios across Canada with branches in Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. Notman was the official Canadian photographer to Queen Victoria (1819-1901). His work forms an unrivalled record of nineteenth cantury Canadian life, including portraits, landscapes and elaborate studio-based genre scenes of Native Amerians, hunters and trappers.