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Topley Portrait of Charles Macnamara1900
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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By the time William James Topley posed his subject for this formal portrait circa 1900, Charles Macnamara was already recognized locally for his skills as a talented amateur photographer and naturalist. Macnamara and Topley were both members of The Photographic Art Club of Ottawa which started exhibiting works to the public at 121 Sparks Street, Ottawa, in 1908. Unlike Topley, Macnamara never became a commercial photographer, or develop skills as a portrait photographer.Charles Macnamara was an educated man who preferred the silence of the bush to poetry readings or music recitals. He read Shelley, Thoreau, and Victor Hugo but did not care for Voltaire. He subscribed to the New York Times Literary Supplement which he tucked into his canvas bag to read while enjoying his cheese and onion sandwiches on his Sunday walks. He liked to sing popular songs and recite poetry, including his favourite poem the Lotus Eaters by Tennyson, during his solitary journeys into the bush just east of Arnprior. He wrote in his diary that, "It gives me a lot of pleasure to repeat poetry like this, but I simply hate to hear other people doing it."
Jean Macnamara Cunningham lived with her "Uncle Charlie" for many years. She wrote that "his membership in the 'Photographic Art Club of Ottawa' stimulated his interest in science and pictorial photos which he enlarged and sent to exhibitions in Ottawa, Montreal, and London England. He experimented with the newest printmaking techniques, often contrasting different processes as to clarity and artistic value. The Great War of 1914-1918 put a sudden stop to this exchange of pictures and his general interest in photography became a part of his growing study of natural history."
Macnamara described himself as an entomologist and a naturalist who preferred the "cold serene of science where I mostly like to dwell". He took a scientific approach in his studies of nature but possessed an artistic imagination and poetic sensibility when expressing these observations.
Leo Lavoie, author of The Arnprior Story gives credit to Charles Macnamara for providing him with historical information for his book. Macnamara was an amateur historian who was interested in the visit to Arnprior of the Prince of Wales in 1860. Macnamara also researched the various accounts of Samuel de Champlain's exploration to the new world. He wrote an article about an American Daguerrotypist, Solomon N. Carvalho who recorded Col. John C. Fremont's expedition into the Rio Grande in 1853.
Macnamara was a prolific writer and photographer who spent 14 years researching and documenting a beaver colony near Marshall's Bay, Ontario. He was responsible for setting up the Nopiming Game Preserve in 1920 to provide a safe habitat for local and migratory wildlife. The Macnamara Field Naturalist's Club was named after this extraordinary man.
For more details about Macnamara's life, work and legacy please follow the MARSHALL'S BAY, PHOTOGRAPHY, FIELD-NATURALIST and ENTOMOLOGY storylines.
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The twins; Charles and Richard (Dickie) Macnamara1870
Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
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Charles Macnamara was born in Quebec City in 1870, a twin to his brother Dickie who died at the age of 10 of typhoid fever. In 1880, Richard Macnamara and Richard Hannah (Richianna) Parnell Macnamara moved with Charles, his two brothers Duncan and Lewis as well as their sister Marian to Arnprior, Ontario. In 1901, Charles returned to Quebec City where he photographed the market, King's Wharf and the home where he was born.5
Macnamara home1934
153 Daniel Street North, Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
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The Macnamara family moved into a house built by Daniel McLachlin for his son H. F. McLachlin in 1863. The house at 153 Daniel Street, was part of Richard Macnamara's salary when he moved to Arnprior in 1881. After it was purchased from the McLachlin's around 1913, a back kitchen and bay windows were added. This Victorian board-and-batten house was featured in City & Country Home magazine in 1987, when Jean Macnamara Cunningham (Charles Macnamara's niece) lived there.7
View of Bridge and Office1894
Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
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From Charles Macnamara's bedroom window he could look over the treetops and see part of the bridge over the Madawaska river, McLachlin Bros. Mill No. 1, office buildings and the lumber yard that stretched to the horizon.9
McLachlin Bros. Office1894
McLachlin Bros. Office, Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
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The McLachlin Bros. office was built at the eastern end of the Madawaska Bridge across from Mill No. 1 in the 1880's. From its windows, the managers could keep an eye on the lumber slide that fed timber coming from McLachlin's limits up the Madawaska to the mills at the mouth of the Ottawa river. Behind the office were several buildings that supported the lumber mills such as storage sheds, stable, blacksmith shop, wheelwright, harness shop, mess hall and yard office. Canadian Pacific Railway and Ottawa, Arnprior & Parry Sound railway sidings ran through this area from the main lines just south of McLachlin's yard.11
Richard and Charles Macnamara24 October 1894
McLachlin Bros. Office, Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
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Richard Macnamara was secretary and later secretary-treasurer of McLachlin Bros. Lumbering Co. from 1881 to 1921. He retired two weeks before his death at the age of 86 years after 40 years of service to the McLachlin firm. Richard Macnamara was described as a very lively man who loved his work and liked to sing and dance. Charles Macnamara started working for the McLachlin's on December 21, 1885. He retired 48 years later in 1933. Charles was 24 when he composed this photograph using Flash Light to illuminate the office interior.13
Richard Macanamara's head1894
153 Daniel Street N., Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
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Charles Macnamara started photographing his family and scenes of Arnprior in 1894. He experimented with double exposures early in his photographic career as this humorous photograph of his father demonstrates.Please follow the PHOTOGRAPHY storyline for more information about Charles Macnamara's photography.
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