Fonds consists of records relating to the landscape and postcard photography of Dorse McTaggart. McTaggart owned and operated his own postcard business. His photographs and postcards feature scenes from throughout British Columbia, including mountains and other nature scenes, parks, towns, historic sights and landmarks, recreation, bridges, museums, and industrial sites. Dorse’s photography went beyond this subject matter, including portraits and weddings, but this material is not included in the fonds.

Materials in the fonds include negatives, transparencies, photographic prints, and published postcards, which represent the various stages of postcard production. It appears that Dorse produced many of his postcards by shooting on 4x5 film, then creating a 4x5 film positive from which to print the postcard on his own printing press. The fonds also includes a journal kept by Dorse in which he wrote down brief descriptions of photographs that he took, marketing books that he used to show his postcards to potential buyers, and a small amount of correspondence and other textual records.

Items have been arranged into five series that maintain the organization they had when received by Rare Books and Special Collections. It is not clear if this organization was that of Dorse, Walter, or a combination of both.

Series consists of color 35 mm slides shot by Dorse throughout British Columbia. Most of the slides have a date stamp on them, in addition to a four digit identification number. Generally, slides with the same four digit number also have the same date. No known documentation exists for these numbers however. The slides came to Rare Books and Special Collections in slide boxes that were mostly grouped by these numbers and by dates, but were not arranged in numerical or chronological order. The slides have been re-housed for preservation purposes, but this original grouping and arrangement has been maintained.

Series consists of pages from a binder which Dorse used to keep track of the photographs that he took. The series is arranged into files based on the physical arrangement of papers within the binder as well as by function. The material has been removed from its original housing (a small leather binder) for preservation purposes. The order of pages in the binder has been maintained.

Series consists of three books of postcards that were likely used to show postcards to potential buyers or distributors. Two of them have cards made by Dorse, while one is a book of cards made by a different company. They are all spiral bound.

Series consists of postcards from British Columbia. The majority of the postcards have images taken by Dorse and/or printed by Dorse, but there are also some printed by Walter Lance, and some that were collected either by Dorse or Walter. Most of the postcards have an identification number on them which seems to be based on the image used and the size of the card. Similarly formatted numbers can be found on some of the items found in the “Prints, negatives, and transparencies” series of this fonds, and it is likely that these correspond to postcards. The series is arranged into files that reflect Walter’s arrangement and labeling of the cards, generally by town or region.

Series consists of negatives, prints, and transparencies of Dorse’s images, featuring scenes from around British Columbia. Material is arranged in folders that maintain their original grouping, order, and labeling. It is not clear if this grouping was that of Dorse or Mr. Lanz. Most folders are identified by the place shown in the images.

Items have been removed from their original envelopes and re-housed for preservation purposes. Any information that was on the original envelopes is included in the file descriptions.

File consists of photographs and printing layout. Items are labelled “6551-Dorse LS-5859” and “6551-LS-5853.”

File consists of photographs showing the North Shore Mountains as seen from Vancouver and from Surrey.

File consists of photographs and one film positive of miscellaneous scense, including Hell’s Gate, mountains, skiers, railroad bridges, a grade school pageant, a waterfall, and the Victoria Trail Riders. A handwritten note was attached to the photograph of these trail riders.

File includes reproductions of archival photographs, including an image of the town of “Quesnelle” from ca. 1890 and an image of a man on a horse at a rodeo.

File consists of images of Bowron Lakes, located in the Cariboo region of BC, and the surrounding mountains.

File includes two prints of a photograph taken by Dorse (labelled “6551 Dorse LS-5853”) and an aerial photograph taken by Max Patzett (#5959-16). File contained duplicate images which have been removed.

File consists of photographic reproductions of images of archival images. All are labeled 71M058.

File consists of images of Fort St. James in north-central BC. Prints are labeled “Proofs Only” and have identification numbers similar to those found in Dorse’s journal (which is included in this fonds): 69M161 and 69M160.

File consists of photographs that were in an envelope labeled “B&W prints of cards.” The envelope also had “LS 4474” written on it, which may correspond to a postcard. Images include Manning Park, black bears, Meziadin Lake, Terrace, Kitimat, Smithers, Babine Lake, Fort Fraser, Fraser Lake, Houston BC, Fort St. James, Barkerville, Rossland, Bella Coola, petroglyphs, Canim Lake, Loon Lake, Bear Glacier, Rock Creek, International Viewpoint Highway, Kaslo, Gyro Pool in Nelson, Frank-Alberta, Cranbrook, Fernie, Kimberley, Windsor Hotel, and Wardner. Many have text for postcards handwritten on the back and have been stamped with the words “rough proof.”

File consists of postcards contained in a spiral bound book, some of which have come loose from the binding. These postcards do not appear to have photos taken by Dorse, but rather contains stock images. It is not clear what Dorse used this book for. It is possible that he used these stock images for some of the cards that he printed, sold these stock postcards along with his own, or has sold photographs he took as stock photos. Many of the postcards have annotations in ink on the back. Some of the images are of specific places, with labels, and others are more general in nature, often unlabeled. Also contained in the book are three copies of an order form for these postcards, one of which has annotations. These annotations appear to be lists of image numbers.

File consists of postcards contained in a spiral bound book, labelled as “A Traveltime Product” on the cover. All of the postcards were made by Dorse’s company, Scenes by Dorse, and show scenes from throughout the Kootenay region of British Columbia. Postcards have been kept in the original book.

File consists of postcards contained in a spiral bound photo album. All of the postcards were made by Dorse’s company, Scenes by Dorse, and show scenes from throughout British Columbia. The front page of the album has handwritten annotations in pencil relating to costs and quantities. Postcards have been kept in the original album.

File consists of papers that were contained in a folder within the original journal binder. They include six photograph consent forms, signed by individuals who were in Dorse’s photographs and giving him permission to use the images, and one letter written to Dorse regarding photographs he took for an organization.

File consists of pages from a journal used by Dorse to keep track of photographs that he took. It contains pages full of lists of photographs, each one with a stamp indicating the year and the number of the photograph within that year (some of these are handwritten rather than stamped) as well as a brief description of the photograph’s contents. Content of the images listed in the book ranges from wedding and other commercial photography to nature and miscellaneous scenery. It is likely that the photographs included in this journal were taken for other people (such as weddings), for postcards, or for personal use. It is possible that some of these listings correspond to other photographs, negatives, slides or postcards in this fonds, but no obvious connection has been identified.

File consists of material from Dorse’s production of a postcard for the Kootneay Canoe, including photographs and research about the canoe. The outer envelope which originally contained these items had the following text: “see postcard 17608-D” and “75M023.”

File consists of images of the Bennett Dam on the Peace River and the surrounding area. One of the transparencies is labeled 71M174. One of the negatives is labeled 71M195.

File consists of images of the Sunshine Coast in BC.

File consists of slides that were not do not have the same numbered stamp system as the other slides in this series. Some are dated and some are labeled. Some of the date stamps correspond to those used in Dorse’s journal (also included in this fonds). Images include: Pavilion Lake (1965), wildflowers (1965), Cloverdale (1965), Barkerville performers (1966), Prince George (1966), Vanderhoof (1966), Burns Lake (1966), Kitimat (1966), Alexander Bridge (1967), [Spences] Bridge (1967), Prince George city hall (1967), Lejac Residential School (1967), Babine Lodge (1968), Lakelse Hot springs (1968), Babine Lake (1968), Black Tusk (1969), “Fraser Canyon” plaque (1977), and undated scenes from unidentified towns.

All slides stamped AUG70V1. Slides were also stamped and grouped according to one of the following additional identification numbers: 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, 1005, 1006, 1024.

Subject matter of these slides is from throughout the southern interior region of BC, including mountains, lakes, rivers, towns, a museum, the Cariboo region, and bridges.

All slides are stamped OCT73V2. Slides were also stamped and grouped according to one of the following additional identification numbers: 1007, 1038.

Subject matter of the images includes the Kootenay Trout Hatchery and mountain scenes, a bridge, and a road sign in northern BC (approximately 38 miles from the town of Stewart).

File consists of images of the Britannia Mine, located just south of Squamish, BC.