Maple Leaves: Canadian History and Quebec Scenery (Third Series)

Sir James McPherson LeMoine was a prolific writer, chiefly on historical subjects, whose books include seven volumes, published between 1863 and 1906, entitled 'Maple Leaves'.

This, the third in a seven-volume series, has material in two main categories; historical essays, chiefly on the campaign of 1759, and thirty-five short accounts of 'Our Country Seats', in the vicinity of Quebec. It was the first Canadian book illustrated by the insertion of actual photographs, and, according to Greenhill (1965) p.64, 'Copies of this book differ very considerably both in the number of photographs included and in the actual pictures used'. The photographer was Livernois; there were two photographers of this name, Jules-Isaie (1830-1865) and his son Jules-Ernest. These were presumably the work of the former, who died four months after Lemoine's introduction was written.

The photographs fall into two categories; those of houses, etc. taken for the work, and copies of engravings and paintings illustrating the historical aspect. The photographs, with the exception of 24, are briefly captioned in the book, but fuller details are added in the catalogue entries. The subjects can be summarised:

1 Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, from an engraving

2-7, 11-12, 14-20, 24-25, 51 Portraits and historical scenes from engravings and paintings

8-10 Photographs of historic buildings in Quebec

13, 21-22 Governors-General of Canada, from photographs

23, 26-27, 29-42, 44-50, 52 Photographs of houses, etc. described in the book

28, 43 Photographs of enravings of houses.

The volume was purchased in April 1948.

Please cite as Cambridge University Library: Royal Commonwealth Society Library, Maple Leaves: Canadian History and Quebec Scenery (Third Series), Y3062L

The full citation for this item is:

LeMoine, Sir, James MacPherson (1865), 'Maple Leaves: Canadian history and Quebec scenery' (third series), Quebec: Hunter, Rose and Co.

For more on the history of Canadian photography see:

Greenhill, Ralph (1965), 'Early photography in Canada', Toronto: Oxford University Press.

Indexed

This collection level description was entered by SG using information from the original typescript catalogue.