Article

Ernest Brown

Published Online February 5, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Ernest Brown, photographer (b at Newcastle upon Tyne 8 Sept 1877; d at Edmonton 3 Jan 1951). He arrived in Edmonton in 1904 and recorded the quick growth of the city during the boom years 1904-14. His business collapsed in 1914 and in 1920 he was forced to vacate his premises.

Brown, Ernest

Ernest Brown, photographer (b at Newcastle upon Tyne 8 Sept 1877; d at Edmonton 3 Jan 1951). He arrived in Edmonton in 1904 and recorded the quick growth of the city during the boom years 1904-14. His business collapsed in 1914 and in 1920 he was forced to vacate his premises. Embittered, he ran unsuccessfully as Labour Independent in the 1921 provincial election.

Having set up his former assistant Gladys Reeves as a photographer, he spent 8 years in Vegreville photographing, cataloguing his collection and writing a history, "The Birth of the West." He returned to Edmonton in 1929 and operated the Pioneer Days Museum 1933-39, exhibiting his artifacts and photographs. In 1947 the province purchased his museum artifacts and his collection of 50 000 negatives (now housed in the Provincial Archives of Alberta).