Many of the photographs in this accrual are of American railroads and, to a lesser extent, of other foreign railroads and railways. Andrew Merrilees' interest was to a great extent concerned with railways which operated in Canada and this is reflected in his collection: the majority of the photographs of American railroads, locomotives, equipment and rolling stock are from thosse lines which also had branches into Canada. Their equipment therefore had a good chance of being used on Canadian railways, either by the US-based railroad companies or as parts of consists of Canadian railway companies such as the CNR and CPR.
The earliest photographs appear to date to the 1880s, but there are relatively few 19th century images. The latest images seem to have been taken in the late 1960s or early 1970s as there a number from the CPR which show equipment in the livery which was newly adopted at this time. One photograph of an engine on the Pacific Great Eastern dated to January 1972 may be a terminal date. The negatives generally appear to date to prior to the 1950s, as most of them are nitrate.
There are two groups of negatives: glass plate negatives which include some excellent views of the Toronto harbour and railway facilities in the area, probably c 1900; and plastic negatives, of which most are celluloid nitrate. The nitrate material dates prior to about 1950. The negatives generally have extensive identification (although not dated) and some of them appear to mate with nitrate materials which was acquired from the Merrilees estate in 1980. Most of them are snapshots, apparently taken by railway afficionados, and most probably identified and catalogued by them. Some copy negatives are found in this accrual; these were probably created by Andrew Merrilees.
The contents of the prints runs the gamut, although the greatest number of them are directly concerned with railways: equipment, locomotives, buildings, rail-lines, bridges, etc. rather than directly with the part that railways played in the economy and society. Various aspects of railways and work on the railways are portrayed; but photographically the treatment runs from publicity photography distributed by the railways themselves to snapshots taken by railways "buffs", to impressionistic views taken and printed by amateur photographers in the style of of the 1920s and 1930s.
Also included are a number of prints relating to marine subjects: harbours, shipping (including some tall ships).
Notman Album:
This album, of 194 prints, was purchased by Mr. Merrilees at an unknown time. It was evidently made up for a specific but unknown purchaser who may have chosen the images that he wished to have included. The album is set up geographically, commencing on the east coast at Halifax, and continuing across the provinces to British Columbia, however the majority of the photographs are centred on Quebec and Ontario. While the photographs have been captioned, no dates are supplied; but from internal evidence and on the basis of some known copies of certain images, as well as the inclusion of the B.C. images which were taken by Benjamin Baltzly for the Notman firm, it seems certain that the album was not created before 1872. The photographs appear to fall in the period of roughly 1868 to 1871.
