Collection PC2 - Waldren Studios Photograph Collection

In the 1870s, Louis Rice established a photography studio New Glasgow, Nova Scotia after emigrating to the region from Montreal. The studio was purchased around 1890 by G.R. Waldren, who soon opened a second studio in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. For close to five decades, Waldren documented the people and places of north-eastern Nova Scotia. He took photos of many groups, including townspeople and their rural counterparts, the descendants of Scots and Black Loyalists, and later immigrants. He took hundreds of photographs at the Eastern Car Company, which opened in 1913 and began exporting rail cars. Waldren also took portraits--of individuals, teams, teachers, and graduating classes at St. F.X. and at Mount St. Bernard, the girl's school adjacent to the university campus. When Canada went to war, Waldren Studios took portraits of departing soldiers. He captured Nova Scotians at work and at play, documenting the industry of the region while also taking group portraits of the many lodge groups, fraternal organizations, religious communities, trade unions, musical groups and sports teams that were active in the area. Waldren died in 1939. The business was taken over by Corson MacKenzie. MacKenzie continued to take photos and his family continues in the business to this day.