Article

Frederick Dally

Published Online February 5, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Frederick Dally, professional portrait and landscape photographer (b at Southwark, Eng 29 July 1838; d at Wolverhampton, Eng 28 July 1914). Educated at Christ's Hospital, London, Dally arrived in Victoria at the height of the Cariboo gold rush in 1862.

Dally, Frederick

Frederick Dally, professional portrait and landscape photographer (b at Southwark, Eng 29 July 1838; d at Wolverhampton, Eng 28 July 1914). Educated at Christ's Hospital, London, Dally arrived in Victoria at the height of the Cariboo gold rush in 1862. He began business as a general merchant but in 1866 turned to photography.

Prominent citizens, public buildings, local scenes and special events were all his subjects. In and around Victoria, he recorded the presence of the colonial government and the Royal Navy. A keen observer and amateur anthropologist, Dally photographed the coast and interior tribes and also collected native artifacts. Best known are his 1867-68 photographs of the CARIBOO ROAD and of the creeks and claims of the goldfields; many of these views were later used to produce engravings for the pictorial press. In September 1870 Dally sold his stock-in-trade and left Victoria. After studying at the Philadelphia Dental College, he returned to England to work in dental surgery.