Colour photograph of two black-and-white panoramic photographs of Niagara Falls in wooden frames on a grey floor.

ONLINE EXHIBIT: The Niagara Falls panoramas: Two photographic wonders and their preservation

The find

In 2003, construction workers renovating the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen’s Park in Toronto made a surprising discovery. Lying face-down under a sub-floor in the building’s fifth-floor attic were two of the world’s largest panoramic photographs of Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls panorama in winter

November 1912, before preservation treatments

Black-and-white panoramic photograph of Niagara Falls in winter, covered in snow and ice. On the left is a bridge over the river and a snow-covered path leading up to a large building on the top of a hill. A tree-lined path is on the right. Tears and water stains are visible on the image.

Niagara Falls panorama in summer

June 1913, before preservation treatments

Black-and-white panoramic photograph of Niagara Falls in summer, with a bridge over the river and a path leading up to a large building on the top of a hill at left and a tree-lined path at right. Tears and water stains are visible on the image.

This dimly lit photo shares a peek at the panoramas when officials at Queen’s Park first uncovered them in the attic floor. They were coated in a thick varnish and mounted in large wooden frames, suggesting that they had at one time been on display.

Two large panoramas of Niagara Falls in brown wooden frames lying on a grey floor in a dark space. Two men are barely visible standing in the background next to the photographs.

The world’s largest single-exposure panoramas

Inscriptions on the front of each image describe them as the “largest one-piece-one-exposure photo enlargements in the world,” meaning that the images were taken in one shot instead of combining multiple photographs—an impressive feat by a skilled photographer.

Handwritten inscription in gold-coloured text on brown paper. It reads, “Niagara Falls, largest one-piece-one-exposure photo enlargement in the world, June 1913, by Wm. Thomson Freeland, negative and copyright, Canada, 1910, by Panoramic Camera Co. of Can.”

The photographer

The inscriptions identify the photographer as William Thomson Freeland. He was born on June 28, 1872 in Waterville, Quebec to Robert Freeland and Mary Lockyer Freeland. The family later settled in Toronto, where William developed his interest in photography.

While very few details of his career have survived, he is known to have had some interest in photographing boats using a large format or panoramic camera as early as the 1890s—a subject possibly inspired by his father, who owned the Yonge Street Wharf. Freeland also completed work for the Department of Agriculture. He once operated a photography studio at Yonge and Carleton Streets in Toronto, but the length of time it was in operation and the specifics of his work there are unknown.

Scanned copy of a page with handwritten text documenting the birth and baptism of William Thomson Freeland in 1872.

Perhaps Freeland’s best-known photograph is a panorama of Toronto in 1903, taken from the tower of the Foresters Temple Building on the northwest corner of Bay Street and Richmond Street. Copies of the photograph can be found at the City of Toronto Archives, Library and Archives Canada and the Toronto Reference Library. He produced other panoramas during the same period, but none approach the size of the Niagara Falls photographs found at Queen’s Park.

Black-and-white print of a panorama of Toronto with Old City Hall at centre—a building with many arched windows, a steeply pitched roof and a tall clock tower.

Freeland passed away on September 4, 1945 at the age of 73. His life is remembered through the tombstone that marks his grave at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, but the real evidence of his legacy are his magnificent photographs—above all, his two panoramas of Ontario’s famous falls.

Grey, moss-covered tombstone for the Freeland family in a cemetery.

The Panoramic Camera Company

The negative and copyright for the Niagara Falls panoramas are credited to the Panoramic Camera Company of Canada, which advanced the use of panoramic camera technology in capturing wide-angle views of group portraits and landscapes. By exaggerating a town’s size and emphasizing its sites, panoramas served as useful promotional images and desirable travel souvenirs. Photographer and inventor, William J. Johnson (1856-1941), founded the Panoramic Camera Company in Toronto in the early 20th century. His nephew, Fred Stanley Rickard (1890-1962), took over the company when Johnson left for California around 1920 and remained as manager until it closed several decades later.

The Archives of Ontario’s collection includes over 300 Panoramic Camera Company photographs, most of which show Toronto landmarks, events and group portraits in the early decades of the 20th century.

Black-and-white panoramic photograph, taken from above, of crowds of people on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. In the distance are two large buildings and the shore of Lake Ontario.

Black-and-white panoramic photograph of a street scene. On the corner is a shop with signage that reads, “L. J. Applegath & Sons – the hat for every man” and a large awning with the text “This is Applegath’s.”

Black-and-white panoramic photograph of two baseball teams, each standing in a line and facing the camera. Behind them is a scoreboard, a billboard advertising Coca-Cola and spectators in the stands. The tracks of a roller coaster are visible behind the billboard and stands.

Black-and-white panoramic photograph of a large group portrait showing adults and children from the Chinese Standfast Club in a park. Behind them is a banner that reads, “Chinese Standfast Club third annual picnic, June 12th, 1926.” Chinese characters are written beneath the English text on the banner.

Black-and-white panoramic photograph of a large group of well-dressed women standing or seated on a lawn in front of a two-storey building with a covered porch and balconies around the exterior.

Early panoramic cameras

With today’s technology, taking a panoramic photo has never been faster or easier. Creating these photos in Freeland’s day was more complicated. The process required either the use of expensive panoramic camera equipment (as in Freeland’s case), or hours stitching together images in a darkroom.

While we don’t know the precise camera Freeland used to create the Niagara Falls panoramas, he may have used one like the “cycloramic camera” John R. Connon of Elora, Ontario first patented in 1887. William Johnson invented a similar “Cirkut panoramic camera” in 1904, but Connon’s device was the first of its kind to capture a 360-degree view in a single exposure—a major milestone and important Canadian contribution to the history of photography.

Sepia-toned photograph of an early panoramic camera. The camera is fastened to a wheel mounted on top of a tripod.

Two pages from a United States Patent Office submission from 1887 for John R. Connon’s panoramic camera. On the left page are diagrams of the camera’s exterior and interior. The page on the right consists of typewritten text explaining how the camera works.

Black-and-white photograph of an early panoramic camera. The camera is fastened to a wheel mounted on top of a tripod and is positioned overlooking a river surrounded by steep rocks.

Hidden gems

Freeland’s technique for enlarging and printing the Niagara Falls photographs at such a huge scale remains a mystery, adding to their intrigue. Another part of the mystery is why these massive photographs were stored in the attic floor.

In 1924, when photographer M.O. Hammond took this scene of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen’s Park, it is likely that the panoramas were hanging in a location where they could easily be seen. Due to renovations or redecorating in the building, at some point they were taken down and put into storage. Given their large size, suitable storage space was limited, which is probably why they were relocated to the attic, where they remained hidden from public view for years.

Black-and-white photograph of the façade of the Ontario Legislative Building at Queen’s Park in Toronto. The Romanesque-style building has a central tower with a steeply sloped roof, rounded arches and carved stone details. The building is framed by trees under a partly cloudy sky.

In a tight spot

Decades of being holed up in an attic hideaway had unfortunately taken their toll on the photographs and there was significant damage to both prints when they were uncovered in 2003. The officials who found them faced a difficult problem. Due to the renovation work underway, the panoramas could not remain where they were, but their size made moving, treating and safely storing them a huge challenge. With their visible damage, it was clear that removing them from the building in their current state would expose them to additional risk.

Archives of Ontario to the rescue

The solution? Calling in experts from the Archives of Ontario. The curator of the Government of Ontario Art Collection and conservators from the Archives were invited to assess the panoramas and recommend a long-term preservation plan to stabilize, store and share them. The first step involved transferring the photos into the Archives’ custody. Initially, they were to be moved to the Archives’ facility, then located at 77 Grenville Street, several blocks away. However, it was later determined that the Archives’ offsite storage vault would be a better home.

A grey concrete office building with tall pillars at the base and many rows of glass windows.

The only practical way to move the photographs involved first removing them from their frames and rigid metal backing. A large fourth-floor storage room in the Legislature served as their short-term home to complete this work, and the panoramas’ long voyage of recovery began. Read on to follow the process and explore the lasting fascination with these records that capture one of Canada’s most-visited tourist destinations.

A crowded storage room containing a large black-and-white panoramic photograph covered in a plastic sheet. A woman stands by the photograph at the back of the space. A shelving unit is on the right and piles of wooden crates and other materials line the room.

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The Niagara Falls panoramas: Two photographic wonders and their preservation

Next up: Chapter 02

The assessment

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