Biographies > Alex MacLean

Alex MacLean is pioneer photographer whose work is an invaluable record of Haileybury’s early development from its beginning, through the devastation left by the Great Fire of 1922 and its rebirth. He also photographed extensively in the Temagami region, documenting the natural beauty and appeal of northern Ontario. MacLean’s photographs are important documents for historians and researchers.

Alex MacLean was born in Bryson Quebec. Here he learnt woodworking and later made many of his own cameras.  In 1903 the Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned him to take photographs throughout the west.  The 1922 Great Fire destroyed this collection of early photographs. MacLean came north to Haileybury in 1907. He was hired by mining companies in north-eastern Ontario to photograph underground and above-ground. He developed a technique for colouring his photographs with oil. His photograph of the Prince of Wales at the O’Brien Mine in Cobalt, 1919, was chosen by the Prince as his favourite of his Canadian Tour and it hung at Wembley Exposition.