Thomas Coffin Doane (1814-1896) was a Canadian photographer. His work is held in the collections of the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

, the

Royal BC Museum Founded in 1886, the Royal British Columbia Museum (sometimes referred to as Royal BC Museum) consists of The Province of British Columbia's natural and human history museum as well as the British Columbia Provincial Archives. The museum is loca ...

, the

McCord Museum The McCord Stewart Museum (french: Musée McCord Stewart) is a public research and teaching museum dedicated to the preservation, study, diffusion, and appreciation of Canadian history. The museum, whose full name is McCord Museum of Canadian His ...

, the

Library and Archives of Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the Government of Canada, federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national arch ...

, among others.

Early life

Doane was born in 1814 in Barrington, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Work

In 1832 Doane began working as a portrait painter. In 1842 he went to

Halifax, Canada Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

to learn the daguerreotype process from William Valentine. In 1843, Doane and Valentine travelled to set up a

daguerrotype Daguerreotype (; french: daguerréotype) was the first publicly available photographic process; it was widely used during the 1840s and 1850s. "Daguerreotype" also refers to an image created through this process. Invented by Louis Daguerre an ...

photography business at the Golden Inn at St. Johns in Newfoundland under the name of Valentine & Doane. By 1846, he had established a clientele including subjects such as Jeffrey Howe,

John Sartain John Sartain (October 24, 1808 – October 25, 1897) was an English-born American artist who pioneered mezzotint engraving in the United States. Biography John Sartain was born in London, England. He learned line engraving, and produced several o ...

, and

Lord Elgin Earl of Elgin is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1633 for Thomas Bruce, 3rd Lord Kinloss. He was later created Baron Bruce, of Whorlton in the County of York, in the Peerage of England on 30 July 1641. The Earl of Elgin is the h ...

Louis Joseph Papineau Louis-Joseph Papineau (October 7, 1786 – September 23, 1871), born in Montreal, Quebec, was a politician, lawyer, and the landlord of the ''seigneurie de la Petite-Nation''. He was the leader of the reformist Patriote movement before the Lower ...

, among others. In 1865 he was no longer making photographs. Following his practice with Valentine, Doane travelled to the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

before setting up a studio in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Personal life

In 1866 Doane moved to New York. He and his wife had a daughter, Kathleen Maud Doane, who married the American artist

Childe Hassam Frederick Childe Hassam (; October 17, 1859 – August 27, 1935) was an American Impressionist painter, noted for his urban and coastal scenes. Along with Mary Cassatt and John Henry Twachtman, Hassam was instrumental in promulgating Impressioni ...

Gallery

File:Louis-Joseph Papineau.jpg, Louis-Joseph Papineau, c. 1852 File:The Earl and Countess of Elgin, Lady Alice Lambton and Lord Mark Kerr.jpg, Earl and Countess of Elgin, Lady Lambton, Lord Kerr, 1848 File:Saint-Jean Baptiste 1855 color.jpg, Saint-Jean Baptiste 1855 File:Molson family brewery after the fire of 1858.jpg, Molson family brewery after the fire of 1858 File:Advertisement for Thomas Coffin Doane studio.jpg, Advertisement for Thomas Coffin Doane studio in Montreal, 1865

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doane, Thomas Coffin 19th-century Canadian photographers 1814 births 1896 deaths Canadian portrait painters 19th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters 19th-century Canadian male artists