Whether travelling for business or pleasure, Hammond sought out and photographed historical sites and monuments wherever he went. Among his photographs are thousands of images of historically significant buildings, battlefield sites and monuments.

Hammond spent many years compiling information, anecdotes and images relating to significant events, places and people in Canadian history.

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Blockhouse, Lacolle Quebec, [ca. 1910-1930]
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0016659

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Hammond wrote in the verso of this image:
"Old House, Queen Street, Kingston, Ontario
in which Governor Simcoe organized the first
Parliament of Upper Canada in 1792."
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0016662

A researcher and writer of some renown, he published many of his historical articles in newspapers and journals. Some of these pieces were eventually compiled and published as; Confederation and its Leaders, 1917, and Canadian Footprints: a Study in Foregrounds and Backgrounds, published in 1926. Written in an engaging style, and illustrated heavily with his own photographs, these popular histories did much to generate an interest Canadian history.

As a result of Hammond’s research and photo-documentation in this area, we are left with a rich photographic inventory of historic sites, monuments and buildings, many of which no longer survive.

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Fort York, Toronto, November 20, 1908
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0000764

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Louis-Joseph Papineaus' home,
Montebello, Quebec, [ca. 1910-1930]
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0016645

Walter S. Allward was probably Canada's most important monument sculptor in the early 20th century. Among his works are the Sir Oliver Mowat monument at Queen's Park, Toronto (included in the slide show below), and the Alexander Graham Bell monument in Brantford, Ontario. His most important commission however, was the monument to Canadians killed in the First World War at Vimy Ridge which he completed in 1936.

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Walter S. Allward, Sculptor, [ca. 1910-1930]
M. O. Hammond
Glass plate negative
Reference Code: F 1075-15-0-0-124
Archives of Ontario, I0016652

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Bell Memorial, Brantford by
Walter S. Allward, [ca. 1910-1930]
M. O. Hammond
Glass plate negative
Reference Code: F 1075-15-0-0-36
Archives of Ontario, I0016643

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Detail of Dollard Monument,
Montreal, [ca. 1910-1930]
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075-15-0-0-120
Archives of Ontario, I0016651

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Métis Graves, Batoche,
Saskatchewan, [ca. 1910-1930]
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0016649

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Old Navy Hall, Niagara, 1920
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0016672

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Magazine, Fort George, Niagara, 1920
M. O. Hammond
Black and white negative
Reference Code: F 1075
Archives of Ontario, I0016661