Accession Number

2009.009.002

Description

A hard-covered leather-bound photograph album, the front cover incised in gilded lettering with the initials H.M.C. (for Henrietta Maud Chaplin), the interior pages of heavy paper supporting photographs attached with an invisible adhesive.

Narrative

This album was owned by Henrietta Maud Dunsmuir (Mrs. Reginald Spencer Chaplin) (1872-1950). It contains photographs documenting a wide range subjects dating from circa 1898 to circa 1937. Many of the images depict Reginald Chaplin and Henrietta Maud Dunsmuir (Mrs. Chaplin).

Subjects range from: Reginald Chaplin's cavalry activities in Britain or Ireland;  leisure activities on the grounds of English country houses;  leisure sailing in Quebec and coastal British Columbia waters;  coastal and inland British Columbia fishing scenes, including at what appears to be her brother James Dunsmuir's compound at Cowichan River, coastal beaches, and at an arid canyon waterway.

One image shows Maud standing in tweed clothing and holding a dead fish whilst smoking a pipe. Her grandson, the late Sir Dermot Humphrey de Trafford, 6th Baronet, VRD, FRSA (19 January 1925 – 22 January 2010), told Craigdarroch Castle curator Bruce Davies that his grandmother Maud detested fishing.

History of Use

This album originally belonged to Henrietta Maud Dunsmuir (Mrs. Reginald Spencer Chaplin). She used it in England from circa 1898 until her death in 1950, except for a period in the late 1920's and 1930's when she resided in Vancouver. Following her death in England in 1950, it was inherited there by her daughter Joan Isabel Chaplin (1899-1977) (also known informally as "June", and formally as Mrs. Rudolph de Trafford). Following her death, it was inherited by her son, Sir Dermot Humphrey de Trafford, 6th Baronet, VRD, FRSA (19 January 1925 – 22 January 2010), who donated it to The Castle Society in 2009.

Date

circa 1898 – 1938

Dimensions

31.8 x 44.5 cm

Material

Paper; Leather; Paper, cardboard

Inscription

H.M.C. (for Henrietta Maud Chaplin)

Country of Origin

United Kingdom