On the Humber, Ontario

Landscape, Rivers, Texts, Trees

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 18.5 x 12.2 | 19.1 x 12.8 cm glued along right margin
Support Dimensions: 24.8 x 19.0 cm

Newly married, photographer Nichol Elliot came to Canada, arriving in Quebec City in June, 1912, aboard the ship Saturnia. His destination was Toronto, where his wife would eventually join him.

The following poem by Alice Elliot appears full-page opposite this photograph by Nichol Elliot, On the Humber, Ontario:

The Canadian Birch Tree

WHERE wander reedy creeks the birch tree gleams
All emerald silvery grace in stem and spray,
Now lakesides fringing, now some upland way,
And, swaying, whispers like a tree of dreams;
Till lo! when autumn’s moon of magic beams,
The dryad-haunted form of shining grey
Amid the crimson maples’ royal display
Their spangled lace in drift of glory seems.

With line and hue and sylvan charm defined
Delight will blend, to set such tree apart ⎯
Agleam in tender colours of the heart
Or linked to golden memories in the mind ⎯
And deeply on our souls imprint its trace,
A thing, of God ordained, as gift and grace!