Accession Number

2012.007.001.013

Description

A black and white photograph of four women and one man on the steps of the residence named Ashnola and later re-named Sissinghurst, the masonry is cracked and open (deteriorated), the man at centre is seated and holding a dog.

Narrative

This group is at ease on the steps of Ashnola, the house built on Victoria's Gorge waterway in 1889 for Emily Ellen Dunsmuir (Mrs. Snowden) and her husband Northing Pinckney Snowden. Laura Miller Surles (Mrs. James Dunsmuir) stands at right, her daughter Sarah Byrd Dunsmuir (later Mrs. Guy Audain) is seated on a step. The other people in this image are unidentified. Emily Dunsmuir sold this house to Edgar Crow Baker in 1898, and it was then renamed Sissinghurst. 

History of Use

This photograph was taken in about 1897 and placed in an album created by the James and Laura Dunsmuir family at Burleith, their home on Victoria's Gorge Waterway. In 1906 it was probably taken by the family to Victoria's Government House where they lived while James served as British Columbia's eighth Lieutenant Governor. From there it was taken to the family's new house, Hatley Park, in 1910.

Sometime after Laura Miller Dunsmuir's death in 1937, the album became the property of Dola Frances Dunsmuir (also known as Mrs. Dola Cavendish) and was kept at her house Dolaura in Colwood, B.C. After hear death, the album was owned by her sister Kathleen's daughter, Judith Humphreys (also known as Mrs. Judith Joy). Her daughter donated the album to Craigdarroch Castle in 2012.

Date

circa 1893

Dimensions

11.5 x 8.7 cm

Photograph Type

Gelatin silver process

Subject/Image

Laura Miller Surles (Mrs. James Dunsmuir) and her daughter Sarah Byrd Dunsmuir on the steps of Ashnola with two women and one man with a dog.

Support

Paper, Photographic paper

Country of Origin

Canada