An exhibition at Aurora Town Square is inviting guests to step again in time via greater than a century of pictures that seize the folks, locations and tales that formed the group.
Scattered all through Aurora Cultural Centre’s three ranges till Aug. 22, Aurora Through the Archives: [un]Framed and in Focus transforms historic pictures relationship from 1880 to 1980 into an immersive expertise woven all through the brand new civic facility.
Curated by the Aurora Museum & Archives as a part of the provincewide CONTACT Photography Festival, the exhibition options authentic archival photographs paired with interpretive frames that enlarge particulars from every {photograph} and uncover the tales hidden inside them.
Among the highlights are a group of cartes de visite — small photographic portraits mounted on cardstock that grew to become fashionable in Canada within the late nineteenth century. Often exchanged as keepsakes or calling playing cards, the portraits supply a uncommon glimpse into on a regular basis life in Victorian-era Aurora.
“Cartes de visite is a photography form that was devised in the 1860s,” stated Jeremy Hood of the Aurora Museum & Archives. “Because of the history we have with newspapers and other resources, we have been able to lock down when some of these photographers were performing this kind of photography and producing this form factor.”
Many of the pictures have been produced by native studios, together with Bogart & Robinson Photography, which operated in Aurora for less than a short while however left behind an essential visible file of the group.
As museum workers examined the gathering, one surprising element emerged: an ornate upholstered chair that seems repeatedly in portraits taken not solely in Aurora, but additionally in Newmarket, Toronto, Brantford, and Galt.
“We’ve developed a little bit of an interest in whether or not this chair is part of a set, unique, or something that a number of photographers purchased out of a catalogue,” Hood stated.
The museum has turned the thriller right into a “Chair Hunt,” encouraging guests to identify the recurring piece of furnishings among the many exhibition’s photographs.
Researchers have additionally uncovered intriguing tales about among the sitters themselves. One portrait depicts Caleb Swayze, who later grew to become an inventor and obtained a U.S. patent in 1893 for a thread-locking compound made with egg whites.
“It’s interesting to see that these people who were photographers, the amount of time that they would spend with chemicals, and with some of these more involved processes in the 1870s and 1880s, brought them into this interesting milieu,” Hood stated. “We always start from our position of unknowing and move to the position of knowing, if we can.”
The exhibition runs via Aug. 22 at Aurora Town Square and is free to the general public. Visitors can discover the pictures, uncover hidden particulars and uncover how seemingly abnormal photographs proceed to disclose new chapters of Aurora’s previous.