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Manitoba Photographer, John Henry Clarke (1860-1923)
We collect postcards for many reasons. Pictures of places we have been or wish to see again. Postcards of trains, planes, railroads, cats, rats and elephants. For the same reason people collect coins stamps, buttons, fruit jars, old cars or tools. The list is endless. I have always been fascinated by what the photographer saw at that moment in time. An instant that cannot be repeated. An image was produced that captured the inner thoughts for eternity. One basically unknown photographer was J.H. Clarke of Selkirk, Manitoba.
I borrow from my fellow Deltiologist Rob MacInnes, and he from the Manitoba Historical Society the following: J.H. Clarke was born in England August 6, 1860. He was married and had one son. They came to Winnipeg to partake in the booming city and he was immediately hired as a photographer by a local firm. Some years later, he joined a group of Manitobans going west to find their fortune in the Klondike Gold Rush. He got as far as Victoria B.C. Then reality set in and he returned to Winnipeg. Many believe he had wisely taken his camera with him. On the way home he took a number of photographs later made into very collectible postcards.
He did not number his cards, so we have to guess how many he made into postcards. One of his many interesting cards is of “The Hoodoos” in Banff National Park. Some years later Canada Post, to their embarrassment, produced a stamp, Scott #2845, that showed an image that was labelled “The Hoodoos” but was of something else entirely. They quickly withdrew the lot and corrected their mistake.
We understand that Mr. Clarke prospered in Winnipeg and then moved to Selkirk in 1903. The back of his cards always say “J.H.Clarke Selkirk, Man.” He died of pneumonia at the Winnipeg General Hospital February 14, 1923 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Winnipeg.
Ken Kristjanson
December 2019
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