BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Lauchlan Alexander Hamilton

September 20 1852 - 1941

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Lauchlan Alexander Hamilton was born in Penetanguishene, Ontario, in 1852. He was educated at Collingwood High School. He was admitted as a Provincial Land Surveyor in Ontario, then in Manitoba and British Columbia, as well as qualifying as a Dominion Land Surveyor.

He served for several years in the office of the Surveyor-General of Canada, and was then appointed Assistant Land Commissioner for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was serving as the the C.P.R's Chief Land Commissioner when Vancouver was founded, and became a member of the first Vancouver City Council. He assisted in laying out the first surveyed streets in Vancouver. He was also an amateur artist, and painted a number of watercolours of Vancouver in the 1800s that are now historic records of the city's beginning.

A memorial plaque to Hamilton was installed on a building at the corner of Hamilton and Hastings Street, and commemorates the location where he began his survey in 1885. The plaque was created by the March brothers foundry in England.

29 of his early watercolour sketches of Vancouver were shown in a solo retrospective exhibition of his work at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1943. The paintings were on loan from the Vancouver Archives, courtesy of Major Matthews.

Hamilton died in Toronto, Ontario in 1941.


SOLO EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION LOCATION
May 7 - 20 1943 Sketches of Early Vancouver VAG

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK

References

CANADIAN MEN AND WOMEN OF THE TIME by Henry James Morgan
      "A Handbook of Canadian Biography"
      1898, 1st Edition, published by William Briggs, Toronto, Ontario
      1,130 pages of biographical information, some advertisements
      The precursor to Who's Who in Canada, and McMann's Canadian Who's Who Index 1898-1984
      Includes one paragraph on Hamilton to that date.

EARLY PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS IN CANADA (refer to H70)

ARTISTS OVERLAND (refer to BAG80)

A GUIDE TO SCULPTURE IN VANCOUVER
      1980, Peggy Imredy, self published; no ISBN.
      64 pages, illustrated throughout in black & white.
      Excellent summary of sculpture in Vancouver to that time; includes index.
      Artists include L.A. Hamilton, page 40.

ARTISTS IN CANADA 1982 - UNION LIST OF ARTISTS' FILES (refer to AIC82)

EYES OF A CITY: EARLY VANCOUVER PHOTOGRAPHERS 1868 - 1900 (refer to VCA86)

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF ARTISTS IN CANADA (refer to BIAC03)
      4 references cited for Hamilton, including Morgan listed above.

TAMING THE FRONTIER: ART & WOMEN IN THE CANADIAN WEST 1880 - 1920
      July 2005; by Virgina G. Berry, copyright Margaret Berry and Julie Berry Melynk.
      188 pages softcover; illustrated, footnotes, bibliography, index
      Centered on Winnipeg, but has early references to Hamilton.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Hamilton-23431

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16815339/lauchlan-alexander-hamiltons-obituary/

https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1940/5/15/planner-of-cities

Clippings

Obituary, Vancouver Province, February 11 1941

"Scenes of Early Vancouver On Display at Art Gallery" by Palette
      Vancouver Province, May 7 1943

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