Slim Aarons, the American photographer who made his career out of what he called “photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places” didn’t take any of these colour photographs of mid-Century Canada. And for the most part, we don’t know you did.
Many of these pictures show us people working in Canada in the 1950s. Others show glimpses of what could be the celebrity and socialite life Aarons captured so well.
All these photographs are housed at the Library and Archives Canada (LAC), which collects and preserves Canada’s documentary heritage.
Man, woman and young girl playing with a beach ball in the water at the beach, 1950
Two men and two women have drinks under an umbrella at an outdoor table, Fundy National Park, New Brunswick
Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Phillip and another elderly man stand before a crowd of spectators, 1951
A man and a woman on bicycles consult a road map on the bank of the Ottawa River, Rockcliffe Park, Ontario, June 1952
ean Paul Lemieux teaching at the École des Beaux Arts, Quebec
Girl sitting at desk flipping through textbook pages at Putnam School
Woman kneeling with bow and arrow in her hands. Archery in Stanley Park, 1954
Woman and three children outside in winter clothes, May 1956
Guests on the lawn at Fern Cottage summer resort, Lake Couchiching, Orillia, Ontario
Visitors relax on the lawn at the Star Cabins resort in Ontario
Captain Peter Troake cuts mate Ches Pelley’s hair while Gerald Drover jokes around on board the MV Christmas Seal, Newfoundland and Labrador
Shirley Emerson of Saint John, New Brunswick, lines up her gear to go fishing with her father, R.B. Emerson
Father, mother and two little girls fly-fish in a boat on Story Lake, Ontario, 1951
Visitors examine hooked rugs, Québec, Quebec
A couple fishing from rocks at Burleigh Falls, Ontario
A woman uses machinery to make cups at Maple Leaf Plastics, Toronto, Ontario
Coffee is served outdoors to guests at the Laurentide Inn winter resort in the Laurentians, Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec, 1953
Inuit child sailing his toy boat with caribou skin sails
Howard Robbins has a quick coffee and sandwich during harvesting operations, Matador Cooperative Farm, Saskatchewan, 1953
Interior, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Montréal, Quebec 1967
Inspecting paper currency, Canadian Bank Note Company, Ottawa, Ontario, 1957
Montreal street at night, Quebec
A man and two women rest on a hill above MacLaren Pond while hiking in Fundy National Park, New Brunswick ,1950
Ulaajuk (left) and Kaqslui (right),
Two women feeding a black bear at Nuisance Grands, Banff National Park, Alberta, 1951
A conveyor belt with peaches on it. In the background can be seen a young woman placing peaches in baskets. Grimsby, Ontario, 1957
Lowering car onto production line tracks, Ford Motor Company of Canada, 1961
An automobile exits a drying oven after being painted, General Motors, Oshawa, Ontario, 1959
Colonel and Mrs. G.E. Leprohon, patrons of Au Lutin, Montreal, feeding the restaurant pig with a baby bottle, Quebec
Three women in the Canadian Army paddling a canoe, Canada
Betty Chan admires Pipe Major Bill MacLeod’s tie, made from the MacLeod tartan, at a festival, Kildonan Park, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Paint technician Jean Bedard is tinting in the Control Laboratory at Ottawa Paint Works, Ontario ,1955
Inuit boy [Saviarjuk Usuarjuk] in front of rack of drying fish, Ivujivik, Quebec, 1951
Mrs. Merle K. Stier, Stampede Queen (centre), and two attendants watch riding and roping events at the Calgary Stampede
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