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ABERDEEN AND TEMAIR, Ishbel Maria, Countess of
- Born
- London, England, 1857
- Died
- Aberdeen, Scotland, 1939
- Biography synopsis
- In 1890 Countess Aberdeen (nee Majoribanks) travelled across Canada by train with her husband recording aspects of her journey with a Kodak camera. The amateur photographs were brought together with her written impressions in the publication "Through Canada with a Kodak." A few years later she became a resident in Canada from 1893-1898 when her husband, Lord Aberdeen, served as Governor General of Canada. In addition to her social and philanthropic engagements, including the founding of the National Council of Women of Canada (1893), she also became the first sponsor of the Women's Art Association of Canada in the same year. She continued to produce amateur photographs and watercolours of Canadian subjects. The photographs are held by the Canadian Photography Institute at the National Gallery of Canada along with a Memorial Album of her son's life. She also created The Guisachan Album which included photographs of two British Columbia properties she and her husband had acquired in 1890. When Lady Aberdeen left Canada in 1898 her numerous contributions to social and art institutions were recognized by the government of Canada with a gift proposed by Mary Dignam, head of the Women's Art Association of Canada. It included the Canadian Historical Dinner Service consisting of a dinner service of eight courses with twenty-four place-settings handpainted by artists of the Women’s Art Association of Canada.
- Media used
- Painting
- Photography
- File & Archive locations
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, ON
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- Aberdeen And Temair, John Campbell Gordon 1st Marquis Of. "We twa": Reminiscences of Lord and Lady Aberdeen London: W. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1925
- Dow, Hilary. "Lady Aberdeen's Memorial Photobook to her Son: An Elegy in Visual Form." National Gallery of Canada Magazine 6 Feb. 2019
http://www.gallery.ca/magazine/your-collection/at-the-ngc/lady-aberdeens-memorial-photobook-to-her-son-an-elegy-in-visual - Greenhill, Ralph and Andrew Birrell. Canadian Photography : 1839-1920 Toronto: The Coach House, 1979
- Harper, Marjory. "Introduction to the 1994 Edition." Countess of Aberdeen, Through Canada with a Kodak. 1893 Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 1994
- Harris, Carolyn. "Lady Aberdeen." The Canadian Encycopedia online Historica Canada, 2008 (2016 updated)
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/ishbel-gordon-lady-aberdeen - MacHardy, Carolyn. “Kodaking and Being Kodaked”: The Guisachan Album of Ishbel, Lady Aberdeen." Journal of Canadian Art History/Annales d'histoire de l'art Canadien 34.2 (2013): 179-209
- Reichwein, P. and K. Wall. Uplift: Visual Culture at the Banff School of Fine Arts Banff: Banff School of Fine Arts, 2020
- Skidmore, Colleen. Rare Merit: Women in Photography in Canada, 1840-1940 Vancouver: UBC Press, 2022
- Strong-Boag, Veronica. Liberal Hearts and Coronets the lives and times of Ishbel Marjoribanks Gordon and John Campbell Gordon, the Aberdeens Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 2015.
- Strong-Boag, Veronica. "MARJORIBANKS, ISHBEL MARIA (Hamilton-Gordon (Gordon), Countess of ABERDEEN and Marchioness of ABERDEEN and TEMAIR)." Dictionary of Canadian Biography 16 Toronto, Quebec City: University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/marjoribanks_ishbel_maria_16E.html
Writings by- Aberdeen and Temair, Ishbel (Marjoribanks) Gordon. Through Canada with a Kodak Edinburgh, W. H. White & Co, 1893
http://www.google.ca/books/edition/Through_Canada_with_a_Kodak/H4zRkJ5bWrsC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=lady+ishbel+aberdeen+studied+watercolour+painting&printsec=frontcover - Aberdeen, Ishbel Gordon, Marchioness of. The Canadian Journal of Lady Aberdeen, 1893-1898. Edited John T. Saywell Toronto: Champlain Society, 1960
