Uno Langmann Family Collection of B.C. Photographs

About the Collection

The Langmann Family Collection dates to the late 1970s, when the Langmanns bought an album featuring early shots of Canada from an Edinburgh antique shop during a trip abroad. Today, it contains an impressive overview of works from early provincial photographers; many of those are held in albums, a rarity given that album contents are often split up.

The photographs were taken by a wide range of photographers. Some well-known photographers represented in the collection include William Notman, Charles MacMunn, Frederick Dally, Charles Horetzky, Charles Gentile, Philip Timms, Yucho Chow, R. Maynard, and Leonard Frank.

Langmann and Ingrid Parent, University Librarian, admiring one of the prints in the collection.

Photographers and novices alike can appreciate the wide variety of photographic processes in the collection, which ranges from albumens and silver prints to stereographs and postcards. Indeed, the collection is ideal for studying the history of photography itself. 

Images from the collection are available for viewing on the Library’s Open Collections portal. Library users will be able to request physical items from the collection through UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections.