Photographs

Photographs are powerful records of people, events and places, and are a critical form of documentary evidence valued by a variety of researchers, from historians to genealogists. Our collections include hundreds of thousands of images, including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, glass negatives, lantern slides, modern transparencies, flexible film negatives, photographic prints of all varieties, photo albums and photo-engraving plates.

Photographs can be found in our collections of private individuals, theatres, businesses and labour unions, but of particular significance are those images that provide visual documentation of the history of the University, from its built environment to student life and campus events. We also have some remarkable collections of professional photographers, including the Waldren Photographic Studios of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

Somers, Mary. "Portraits from Nova Scotia's past: 35,000 negatives rescued from an attic in New Glasgow." Dalhousie News 24, no. 1 (1993) 8-9.

Arts & Health Antigonish. Imagine Antigonish: Heritage Photos for Community Health. (Photographs from the Waldren Studios Collection).

Johnston, A. J. B.  Kings of Friday Night The Lincolns. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing, 2020.

Little, Jean. Dear Canada, If I Die Before I Wake: The Flu Epidemic Diary of Fiona MacGregor. Markham, Ont.: Scholastic Canada, 2007. (Cover portrait: Detail of McGowan, group, 1902, Waldren Studios Collection, PC2, Box 40, File 98)

Little, Jean. Dear Canada, Brothers Far From Home: The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates. Markham, Ont.: Scholastic Canada, 2003. (Cover portrait: Detail of Miss McLean, 1904, Waldren Studios Collection, PC2, Box 54, File 103).

MacLeod, Malcom. A Halifax Boyhood: Growing Up in the City's Outskirts in the 1940s and 1950s. Halifax: Formac, 2008. (Various photographs of Halifax).

MacDonald, Herb. Cape Breton Railways: An Illustrated History. Sydney, Nova Scotia: Cape Breton University Press, 2012. (photographs from the Waldren Studios Collection).