May is Asian Heritage Month, an opportunity to celebrate the many contributions of Canadians of Asian descent. In honour of Asian Heritage Month, Executive Director and Chief Curator Catherine Crowston recalls curating the exhibition: Koshashin: The Hall Collection of 19th Century Photographs of Japan and shares a personal story here:
In 2006, I discovered an incredible private collection of 19th century photographs of Japan, in Edmonton. The collector, Arlene Hall, began collecting in 1967, initiated by a spontaneous gift from her newlywed husband, purchased at a B.C. antique store while on their honeymoon. Over the last 50 years, she has created a collection of over 1,000 hand-coloured albumen prints, which mostly date from the 1860s to the 1890s. I was fascinated by these images, which captured the last years of Edo period Japan and are the very first images of the new Meiji era. As a person of Japanese heritage, I was struck by a sense of the familiar in the faces and places, but I learned so much more about this pivotal moment in the history of Japan and how photography played such an important role. I was very fortunate to be able to curate this remarkable collection into the exhibition: Koshashin: The Hall Collection of 19th Century Photographs of Japan. For me, working on this exhibition was a gift, and I would like to share this memory in celebration of Asian Heritage Month.
