The Rural Voice, 2005-04, Page 42Old times/New times
The wonders of modern technology make the photographic
collection of Reuben Sallows available to anyone online inthe
digital gallery devoted to his photos of early rural life
Story by Keith Roulston, photos courtesy Sallows Digital Library
Reuben Sallows photos captured life in the early days of farming, including Harvesters Crossing Field, 1906 (above).
Jf you live in Ontario and someone asks you to imagine
what farming used to be like in the days before tractors,
hydro and other modern conveniences, chances are the
image that comes to your mind was captured by Reuben
Sallows.
Sallows' photographs of everyday rural life in the early
1900s show up regularly when someone wants an
illustration for life that earlier era (we used one in The
Rural Voice to illustrate planting corn in our February
issue). Now a wide range of his work is available to
people all over the world on-line at www.sallowsgallery.ca.
Access to the Sallows heritage of thousands of
photographs taken in the area around Goderich in the early
20th century increased greatly in 2003 when the Maple
Leaf Chapter of the Independent Order of Daughters of the
Empire, with the assistance of funding from the Ontario
Trillium Foundation, initiated a plan to expand the
Goderich library and add a gallery dedicated to the work of
the photographer.
Last year the gallery added an on-line gallery that brings
together a digital collection of 900 of his photos from
various archives, the largest collection in one place.
Reuben Sallows was born in 1855 on a farm in
Colborne Township northeast of Goderich. His father
James had immigrated from Lincolnshire, England in 1832
and originally married Sarah Morris, with whom he had
nine children. In 1853 he married Sarah Jane Tiffen and
they had four children together, the eldest being Reuben. In
38 THE RURAL VOICE
1869, he married a third time to Sarah Styles and they had
two daughters.
Young Reuben lived and worked on the family farm
until 1876 when he went to Goderich to look for work. He
decided to have his portrait taken by local photographer
R.R. Thompson and then was offered a job as a travelling
salesman canvassing the countryside selling photographs.
Two years later he was offered a three-year apprenticeship
in Thompson's studio. By 1881 he had bought the studio.
At first he followed the path of most photographers of
the time, taking formal portraits in elaborate studio settings
but early advertisements show he was starting to take a
different direction because he had expanded his business to
include pastoral photos and stereoscopic images of local
areas as well as a series of post cards.
The turning point of his career came on a holiday
weekend in 1897. He had intended on spending the holiday
in a nearby town but a morning appointment kept him
closer to home. In the afternoon he drove his young
daughter and one of her friends to the Point Farms resort
on Lake Huron a few miles north of Goderich. There he
posed the young girls on a huge rock and took a photo he
called "Afar o'er the waters a sail I see! What are the
tidings it brings to me?"
The photo was sent to a Rochester, New York
lithographic company which used it in their catalogue. The
same image later appeared in the Buffalo Express, the
Toronto Globe and the St. Louis and Canadian