Americas through a lens: Colonial Office photographic collection released online

[Michael Pritchard]

Americas through a lens are images from The National Archive's Colonial Office's Photographic Collection and include some of the earliest known photographic depictions of Canada dating back to the 1850s. Some of the images have accompanying background information to give them context. The photographs have been uploaded to the photo-sharing website Flickr so that they can be tagged and comments and suggestions added to help improve the descriptions.

The latest online release of pictures from the Colonial Office collection follows the successful launch last year of Africa through a lens - an online showcase for the African images in the collection. The project was inspired by Project Naming, a Library and Archives Canada (LAC) initiative to help identify Inuit portrayed in its own photographic collection.