Accession Number

2024.007.001a-b

Description

One hand-tinted portrait photograph of a young girl in a wooden bronze-powder painted oval frame. The outside of the glass is convex in shape. The photographic artwork is indistinctly signed and could be read as “May Walderose”, or “May Waldern”, or “May Woldarn”.

Narrative

This framed hand-tinted photograph has a long history of use by the descendants of Robert and Joan Olive Dunsmuir. It was collected by The Castle Society to aid in the understanding and presentation of the Dunsmuir family story at Craigdarroch Castle.

The identity of this person in this photograph has not yet been confirmed, but is believed to be Joan Olive Bryden (1887-1959). During the 19th and early 20th Centuries, it was not unusual for boys to have long hair and wear dresses until about age 5. But this subject, with their hair tied up and dressed elaborately, is probably a girl. One Dunsmuir descendant consulted in 2024 stated that the girl is her grandmother, Joan Olive Bryden, adding that the girl’s appearance is similar to photographs of Joan Olive Bryden in her possession taken around the same time. Other Bryden family members consulted were not sure who the girl was, but none of those family members were direct descendants of Joan Olive Bryden.

All Dunsmuir family members agreed that the girl in the photograph strongly resembled Elizabeth Hamilton Dunsmuir (1848-1901), who was the mother of Joan Olive Bryden (see: https://collection.thecastle.ca/Detail/objects/90). However, Elizabeth Hamilton Dunsmuir was born in 1848 and this photograph was not likely taken before 1890. 
 

History of Use

This framed photograph is believed by the donor to have been used by her great-grandfather, John Cowper Bryden (1848-1915) on Vancouver Island in Wellington, and later in his residence called Dalzellowlie in Esquimalt, B.C. She remembers that her grandfather John William Bryden (1869-1953), known to his family as “Poppy”, used it at his Gartley Beach house near Royston, Vancouver Island (near Cumberland and Courtenay). It was next inherited by the donor’s father, Gerald Robert Bryden (1913-1992), and then by his daughter, from whom it was acquired by The Castle Society in 2024.
 

Date

circa 1891

Dimensions

21.5 x 16.3 x 3 cm

Material

Paper; Glass; Wood; Paint, powder

Subject/Image

Joan Olive Bryden (1887-1959)

Inscription

Indistinctly signed:
“May Walderose”, or
“May Waldern”, or
“May Woldarn”