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I discovered this 5
volume set when looking for something else and it provides a ton of
information as you can see from the title above.
INTRODUCTION
The plan of this work
is unique and the conception original. There are biographies JL in
abundance, but this appears to be the only Album on a national scale in
this or any other country. Its title, The Canadian Album: Men op Canada,
is suggestive of its plan and scope, but it might well have been called
“The Canadian Biographical Album,” for this it really is. The usefulness
and desirability of such a work can be readily seen. By that large class
of persons spoken of as “the public,” it should be highly appreciated.
On every hand it is felt that the sources of information concerning The
Men of Canada are very limited. Those who are rightly classed among the
leaders of thought and action in the towns, cities, townships, and
counties of Canada, as well as in the provinces, and in the Dominion
itself, are not so well known as is desirable or necessary. How often
one’s mind seeks information concerning an individual who has suddenly
become conspicuous in church or state? Who is he? Where did he come
from? How old is he? What are his antecedents? His age? His business or
professional education? His past attainments and present standing? And,
finally, his personal appearance?
This work proposes to
answer these questions briefly, but accurately, in sober prose, and in
cold type, like any other condensed biography. But it does not end here
by any means. It brings to its aid the poetry of the artist, with the
skill of the engraver, thus transferring the very image of the man to
the printed page, so that he may, as it were, speak for himself and
answer all our queries.
The next best thing to
seeing and conversing with a man is to see his portrait, especially if a
pen picture accompanies it as in the present plan.
The benefit conferred
upon the country by the publication of this work will be the more
readily seen when the plans of the publishers are considered. If carried
out in their entirety, the enterprise will not only be gigantic in its
proportions, but a benefit to the people that can scarcely be
overestimated. Taking the population of Canada roughly at five millions,
and supposing that about one man to a thousand of the population is a
representative man, there are five thousand men who ought to find a
place in The Canadian Album. This would involve the publication of seven
volumes with a little over seven hundred men in each. To this task the
publishers have set themselves, and from their past record, they will
doubtless succeed. Thus The Men of Canada, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, will live in our homes, telling the story of their lives,
exerting the influence of those qualities of head and heart which have
distinguished them, giving inspiration and entertainment to the young,
and affording companionship for those of riper years, giving lessons in
experience and a knowledge of human nature which cannot be found with
similar fulness in any other volume. Nor does the value of this work end
in sentiment only, important as that is. It has a business and a
professional value. It will be equally in place in the libraries of the
learned professions as on the business man’s desk. How important to have
a knowledge of the men with whom we do business? Mercantile reports are
good so far as they go, but they give a man’s financial “rating” only,
and private reports are often necessary to find out who and what the man
is. There is a felt need to know more about men than is indicated by
their mercantile standing, because there are often other than business
reasons which make information necessary. Character, capacity and
capital are the qualities which tell the story of a man’s worth, and, as
a rule, the second “capacity” is a product of the first, while the
third, “capital,” is generally a result of the second. Still, as capital
is only an incident in the life of a man of character and capacity, and
not a necessary part of it, this work deals with the man himself—his
character and capacity—so that those who desire such information have
only to consult its pages, and by the aid of its copious index, they are
at once made conversant with the man in all the phases of his life.
A man carries his
character in his face to a much greater extent than is generally
supposed. One look at a faithful portrait will often tell the story more
than many pages of print. While physiognomy has hardly yet attained the
dignity of a science, yet there is a well founded belief that there is
an intimate connection between the features and expression of the face
and the qualities and habit of the mind, and every man is conscious of
instinctively drawing conclusions in this way for himself with more or
less confidence, and of acting upon these conclusions, to a certain
extent, in the affairs of life.
The family album has
now become a household necessity, and very properly so. For similar
reasons this “National Album” should also be a household necessity. We
want our friends ever with us, and here they are—archbishops, bishops,
moderators, general superintendents, presidents of churches and their
various assemblies, synods, conferences, and conventions, together with
our pastors and teachers. Here are our legal friends of the Bench and
the Bar; those of the medical profession, our educationists, merchants,
manufacturers and leading agriculturists. Statesmen of the Provincial
Legislatures and the Dominion Parliament; public men and private
citizens meet and greet us here from all parts of our fair Dominion. The
East meets the West, and the middle provinces embrace both; space is
annihilated, and each man visits every other man around his own
hearthstone, in the library or in the office.
This is not a work of
fulsome praise, but of facts. The man is a fact; his birth, education,
professional cr business training, early experiences, marriage, present
position, church standing, and relation to the country as regards office
or influence. These are matters not only gratifying to one’s friends,
but which no good man need blush to read concerning himself. On the
other hand, the public have a right to know these facts concerning
representative men. This kind of information is furnished within these
pages, and so far as the facts are concerned, they have been verified by
the men themselves, with very few exceptions, and are thus reliable. For
the additional comments here and there, the editor and the publishers
are alone responsible. Not every man fitted for a place in these pages
will be found in this first volume, not even, perhaps, from the
territory covered by it, but in future volumes it is the intention to
include the entire Dominion and supply deficiencies in the territory
herein represented.
Editors Note:
I have extracted the Title Page and Index Pages from the 5 volumes and
made them into a separate pdf file which you can download to check what
names are in these volumes. I would advise right clicking on the link(s)
to save these volumes to your own computer as they are quite large.
Note also that Volume V did not have an index but I managed to find one
from another printing.
Index
Volume I
Volume II
Volume III
Volume IV
Volume V |
