Who was William Simpson?by Jim BurantWilliam Simpson, Hamilton artist In 2002, Library and Archives Canada acquired the Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana, an astounding collection of more than 5,000 works of art relating to Canadian history and society from the 1600s onwards. Although the collection was largely made up of prints, it also included hundreds of paintings, drawings, and watercolours by a wide range of well-known Canadian artists, including Hamilton artist John Herbert Caddy (1803-1887), several of whose views in and around the city from the collection have subsequently been exhibited and published.1 But the collection also included works by many artists whose lives have been little-researched, and whose careers remain obscure, despite the quality of their work, or their reputation in their lifetime. One such artist was William Simpson, a draughtsman and keen observer of everyday life, whose pencil drawing of the Desjardins Canal disaster was included in the Winkworth acquisition made by Library and Archives Canada (figure 1). Figure 1: William Simpson, Railway accident on the Desjardins Canal drawbridge, 12 March 1857, pencil on wove paper: 22.4 x 17.1 cm. Ref. No. R9266-387; Credit: Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana, Library and Archives Canada This key visual depiction of a major event in Hamilton’s 19th century history is unusual in that it is authenticated on the verso in ink, with a note by the Mayor of Hamilton, W. J. Moore dated 16 March 1857, a few days after the event.2 William Simpson must have been one of the earliest people on the scene of the disaster – the drawing has a sense of immediacy and one of urgency, as if the artist wanted to capture the spirit of the moment and the sense of shock among the crowds gathered to witness the tragedy’s aftermath, and the attempts to recover survivors. Simpson’s work is one of a number of images produced in relation to this disaster, which also provoked among the earliest surviving examples of photo-journalism, photographs taken by local Hamilton photographers Hardy Gregory (figure 2), David N. Preston, and Robert Milne.3 Figure 2: Attributed to Hardy Gregory, View of bridge disaster over Desjardins Canal, 12 March 1857, salt paper print photograph: 24.6 x 32.8 cm. (rounded corners); Credit Library and Archives Canada, PA-135158 In turn, these on-the-spot visual records inspired published views, such as the lithograph after Preston’s ambrotype published as the frontispiece to the booklet "Full details of the Railway Disaster of the 12th of March, 1857 at the Desjardins Canal, on the line of the Great Western Railway" published by William A. Shepard & Co., Hamilton, and printed at the "Franklin Lightning Press" by John W. Harris & Co.4 The need for William Simpson to seek authentication for his drawing may have been because of his own desire to publish the view he had taken. By the mid-19th century the development of the pictorial press in Europe and in North America meant that such views could be commercially important. Views of current events, disasters such as railway accidents and shipwrecks, and of political and social developments were part of the pages of such periodicals as the Illustrated London News, the Illustrated Times, the Graphic, and Harper’s Weekly, to name only a few.5 Less than three weeks after the Desjardins Canal railway disaster, a story and a related wood engraving was published in the Illustrated London News, in its April 4, 1857, issue, with the note that the information had been provided by “several correspondents”. In addition, individual prints may have also been published; Library and Archives Canada owns a wood engraving (figure 3), which lacks attribution, but it is highly likely that this print may have been executed after Simpson’s drawing, since the same figure of a small boy with a pole in hand can be seen on the right-hand side of the image. Figure 3: Attributed to William Simpson, Scene of the Fearful Railroad Accident on Desjardins Canal, Canada. Wood engraving, R9266-3291, Credit Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana, Library and Archives Canada. The question then was, who was William Simpson? Although the temptation is great to attribute the work to ... [ >>>>> FORWARD ] _________________________1 Several of Caddy’s works appeared in the LAC exhibition Loyal She Remains. Ontario selections from the Peter Winkworth Collection of Canadiana, which circulated to three venues in Ontario in 2006-2007. A virtual exhibition appears at the following wesbite: www.friendsoflibraryandarchivescanada.ca/en/news/exhibitions.php |
William Simpson - Jim Burant
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