Ellisson (also spelled Ellison) was active first in Saint John, New Brunswick, and then in Quebec City between the late 1840s and 1860s. He started as a daguerreotypist and then turned to the wet collodion process to make ambrotypes, cartes-de-visite, and other formats. He made portraits of members of the Grey Nuns of Montreal and prominent figures, including Indigenous leader Paul Tahourencheé and Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, and photographed views of Quebec City, which were sold as stereographs.

Image: George William Ellisson, Grey Nuns, 1861, albumen silver print, 20.2 x 17.6 cm, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

For further reading, see:

Garrett, Graham. Biographical Index of Daguerreotypists in Canada, 1839–1871. Toronto: Archive CD Books Canada, 2017, 108–9.

Lessard, Michel. The Livernois Photographers. Quebec City: Musée du Québec, 1987, 56–58, 67.