LARSEN, OLE (1849-1926)

LARSEN, OLE, photographer; b. Norway, 10 Mar 1849, s/o Laerz Larsen and h/w Ann; m. 1st, 1878, Elizabeth Mutch, d/o Asa Mutch and Mary Jane Fraser, of Whitneyville, and 2nd, 1894, Caroline Mitchell, d/o Charles Mitchell and Mary Ann Abernethy, of Doaktown; d. Newcastle, 22 Oct 1926.

In the census of 1901 the date of Ole Larsen 's entry into Canada is given as 1869. He was living on the Miramichi in the 1870s, but it would seem that he did not advertise his services as a photographer until 1889. Photography was a part-time occupation with him at first. In 1891 he was working as a bartender at the Waverley Hotel in Newcastle, but he had a "photo gallery" in the town in 1892.

In the spring of 1897 Larsen accompanied Robert H. Armstrong to the site of Ernest Hutchison's lumbering operations on the Renous River to take what he referred to as "logging views." He evidently returned the next year, as some of his best-known scenes are dated 1898. He was at Hutchison's camps again in the winter of 1899 and possibly at other times. There are many logging scenes in a collection of some 1400 Larsen photographs at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, a few of which were reproduced in Manny and Wilson's book, Songs of Miramichi.

Larsen claimed an annual income of only $300 in 1901, which was not more than a laborer's wage, but he persevered with the camera and continued to maintain a photography studio in Newcastle. He was survived in 1926 by his second wife, Caroline Mitchell, and one son from each of his marriages.