John Henry Walker (1831–1899), a pioneer Canadian engraver and illustrator, was from

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

and as a young boy emigrated in 1842 to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with his family, settling in Toronto, Upper Canada. In 1845 he was apprenticed for three years to the engraver Cyrus A. Swett, where he was trained in copper and wood engraving. Walker provided the engravings for catalogues, government reports, advertisements and magazines such as ''The Canadian Illustrated News'', ''L'Opinion Publique'' and ''Le Monde Illustré'', and produced the front-cover illustration for his launching of ''Punch in Canada'' in 1849. The magazine was styled on the English ''Punch'' and failed when published by Walker as a weekly. His other short-lived humorous periodicals were ''The Jester'', ''Grinchuckle'' and ''Diogenes''. He is regarded as a pioneer of political cartooning in Canada and dominated engraving in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

from 1845 into the 1890s. His legacy of illustrations provides a rich insight into life in Victorian Canada.

Gallery

File:Battle of Fort Frontenac.jpg, The capture of French Fort Frontenac by the British in 1758 File:John Henry Walker06.jpg, Engraving of a

bandsaw A bandsaw (also written band saw) is a power saw with a long, sharp blade consisting of a continuous band of toothed metal stretched between two or more wheels to cut material. They are used principally in woodworking, metalworking, and lumb ...

1850-185 File:John Henry Walker13a.jpg, Wood engraving of basket phaeton, c1870

References

External links

McCord Museum gallery of Walker's engravings
1831 births 1899 deaths 19th-century engravers Canadian engravers Canadian wood engravers Canadian illustrators 19th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 19th-century Canadian male artists {{printmaker-stub