Boyd Sr. immigrated from Ireland as a child and became a prolific and skilled amateur photographer, his passion facilitated by a career in the railway business. He penned articles for photography journals across North America and befriended and corresponded with George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company. His photographs, including landscapes, urban scenes, and photos of military training, transportation, and leisure, are held at the Ontario Archives and at Library and Archives Canada.

John A. Boyd’s son, John H. Boyd, was the first staff photographer for the Toronto-based newspaper the Globe (now called the Globe and Mail), from 1922 to 1964. A leader in the field of Canadian photojournalism, Boyd Jr. helped found the Commercial and Press Photographers Association of Canada. The City of Toronto Archives hold Boyd Jr.’s negatives from his time at the Globe and Mail, which capture significant moments in Toronto’s history. Both Boyds were interested in the development of photographic technology. Boyd Sr. built his first camera, and Boyd Jr. is thought to be the first Canadian news photographer to use a flash and to transmit a photograph electronically.

Image: John Boyd Sr., Playing Hockey on the St. Clair River in Sarnia, c.1890, black and white photo print, Archives of Ontario, Toronto.

For further reading, see:

City of Toronto Archives, Globe and Mail Fonds 1266.

Koltun, Lilly, ed. Private Realms of Light: Amateur Photography in Canada: 1839–1940. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1984, 306.

Lansdale, Robert. “John H. Boyd and His Camera…” Graflex Historic Quarterly 14, no. 2 (2009). ghq.graflex.org/GHQ-14-2.pdf.

Plummer, Kevin. “Historicist: The Two John Boyds.” Torontoist, December 17, 2011. torontoist.com/2011/12/historicist-the-two-john-boyds/2/.

Professional Photographers of Canada, “About PPOC,” accessed May 11, 2021. www.ppoc.ca/about.php.