Introduction
The history of humankind needs to be remembered and passed to the next generations. Unfortunately, we cannot witness the events in the past. Luckily, however, we have evidence of the past events, which shows us exactly how things happened, what people looked like, and what the world was like long before us. While written facts do not always convey the whole truth and should be taken with a pinch of salt, there are ways of passing on the earlier happenings that do not seem unreliable. These ways of collecting and sharing information are video and audio records and photographs. They are valuable sources of peeping into the past and contemplating the things there. All the same, photography and recording data are used for keeping the present available for the next epochs.
Cape Beaton is lucky to have a large number of collections in the archives, which have absorbed the sense of history and can be used to share the atmosphere of the past. These assortments include tapes, manuscripts, songs, stories, pictures, and many other items. I would like to describe the collection of photographs by the Abbass Studios Ltd. fonds because it made a particular impression on me. I believe that as well as the sound recordings transfer the audio atmosphere, the photos pass the visual environment of the past better than anything else. This opinion especially concerns the old pictures because people tended to be more sincere and they did not have an opportunity to take hundreds of pictures at a time. Unlike at present, in the past, the art of photography was much more time and money-consuming. Thus, pictures were taken less frequently but with more responsibility.
Abbass Studios Ltd. considers its purpose to preserve the memories of the surrounding events for history. Moreover, after many decades of its activity, the Studios’ owners decided to donate a big part of their collection to the Beaton Institute archives so that as many people as possible could feel the sense of history by visiting the archives and observing the items.
Summary of the Collection
The Abbass Studios Ltd. fonds is a collection of photographs covering the span of seventy years. The pictures were taken by the studio owners, as well as by the employees. The selection includes 250,000 negatives. The approximate creation date of the collection is mentioned as 1940 – the year when the eldest of the Abbass brothers became interested in photography (Beaton Institute, 2016).
The collection began to be deposited in the Beaton Institute archives in 2007. The first part of the presented items included “negatives, prints and copies of business indices” (Beaton Institute, 2016, par. 5). In 2014, the collection was enlarged by the school photography items. And, 2015 was noted as the year when portraiture items were added.
The images portray various artistic, official, and commercial events of the region. The negatives are systematized in seven series (Beaton Institute, 2016).
Historical Context of the Collection
It was the year when the Abbass boys – elder sons of Lebanon emigrants Jobe Abbass and Lily Khattar – began getting interested in photography. The eldest, George, started working for Meyer’s Photography when he was a high school student. John joined him in 1941 after graduation. Soon they started cooperating with Chronicle Herald and Post Record papers. When they went to the front in 1943, the four Abbass brothers – John, George, Joe, and Ferris –entitled their youngest brother Tony to look after their contracts and to take care of the business with the newspapers. Upon returning from the war, they obtained a government grant that enabled them to set up their business.
Abbass Studios was launched in 1946 in the Abbass household in Sydney. The services performed by the brothers included business photography, personal pictures, and other kinds of photographic art. Three of the five brothers took part in the photography business – George, John, and Tony. George was in charge of the office and the studio. John was the main photographer. Tony’s responsibility was taking care of the Moncton photo finishing plant (MacLeod, 2015).
In two decades, the brothers expanded their business to all the Provinces of Maritime. They bought outlets in New Castle and set up a photo finishing factory in Moncton. Later, they established the Econo-Color camera store chain (Beaton Institute, 2016).
Biography of the Collector
The photography business was founded by three Abbass brothers – George, John, and Anthony. However, John, being the one responsible for the very process of taking photos, is considered the most influential of the three in the means of memorabilia and collectibles. He is also the one whose sons now continue the photo business dynasty.
John Abbass was born in 1923 in Nova Scotia, Sydney, in a big and friendly family that Jobe Abbass and Lily Khattar created when they moved to Canada from Lebanon. John had eleven brothers and sisters. Two of his brothers worked in the photography business along with him.
After returning from World War II, John, George, and Tony set up their enterprise. John already had some experience and he never stopped working up his way to success. The name of John Abbass has become a synonym for the word photography (Stewart, 2007).
John’s biggest support and his most cherished people were his families: the wife and the children. Apart from being an outstanding photographer, he was a caring husband and father. The sons described John as the most significant role model (Stewart, 2007).
The contemporaries noticed John Abbass’ fondness for politics and his exceptional tolerance. People also praised him for his sense of humor and his sincere amiability. Canadian Premier Rodney MacDonald said he adored communicating with Abbass because he always had “something colorful to say” (Stewart, 2007, par. 9).
The retired Senator John Buchanan mentioned that Abbass was never afraid to express his opinion and was a good advisor. He emphasized that Abbass always held the needs of the people of Cape Breton as his first and foremost priority. Buchanan considered John Abbass “an exceptional individual” (Stewart, 2007, par. 15).
Gordon Photography co-owner Warren Gordon mentioned a joke connected with Abbass’ name. He said that whenever somebody took a camera to some social ceremony, he or she would hear people say “Johnny Abbass, here is Johnny Abbass, take my picture” (Stewart, 2007, par. 23). This joke exemplifies how people identified the photography with John Abbass’ name.
John took all of his photos by his four-by-five inches Graflex. He was always dedicated and responsible. Photography was the sense of his life, but so were the people who surrounded him and whom he dearly loved. John Abbass was sometimes called “the photographer of photographers” (Rankin, 2014, par. 3).
Out of all the fantastic moments captured by John Abbass, there is one that deserves particular awe. It is the photo of Frank Sinatra taken in 1953 when the great singer’s plane had to make an emergency landing in Sydney. John, at the time an employee at Sydney-Post Record, was sent to the airport. Sinatra played along, and now the collection had a photo of a cheerful Sinatra taken by the great Abbass.
This outstanding figure will remain in the memory of the people forever. Several social events are held to commemorate John Abbass’ talented personality. He was inducted into the Cape Breton Business Hall of Fame in 2004 (Cape Breton Business Hall of Fame, 2015). In 2009, the John Abbass Sr. Memorial Golf Tournament started and is held annually (John Abbass Sr. Memorial Golf Tournament, 2016). The tournament is conducted to support and fundraise for the John Abbass scholarship program. This scholarship is aimed at promoting family business in Nova Scotia (John Abbass Sr. Scholarship, 2013). The John Abbass Scholarship Fund was founded to commemorate John Abbass Sr. The fund awards the children, grandchildren, or nieces/nephews of the members of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise with an annual scholarship of $1,500 (John Abbass Sr. Scholarship, 2013).
Detailed Description of the Collection
The Abbass Studios Ltd. fonds includes a great number of photographs taken within the seventy years by the Abbass brothers. The graphic material is systematized in the seven series, namely A, B, C, D, N, P (portraiture), and DOSCO. The last sector consists of the images captured in the middle of the twentieth century at “the Dominion Steel and Coal Company” (Beaton Institute, 2016, par. 6). Part N contains the primary pictures and some of the nitrate film negatives (Beaton Institute, 2016). The parts A, B, C, and D represent the chronological order of photos until 2001. Part P illustrates the photos until 2004.
Each collection element bears a reference code and is accompanied by a detailed description, including the title of responsibility and its statement, the creation dates, the physical description, the archival description, the notes, and the access points. The archival description covers the name of the collection’s creator, the custodial history, and the scope and content of the collection items.
The Significance of the Collection
The importance of the Abbass Studios Ltd. fonds is crucial both in local and world scopes. The collection reflects the events of over seventy years, depicting the changes in social life, the alterations in people’s lifestyles, the transformation of the towns, and many other aspects. The Abbass family’s contribution to the Cape Breton community cannot be overestimated. It has been mentioned by many politicians, historians, and artists that what John Abbass has done is an unselfish act of patriotism and love. Both while taking the photos and while deciding to contribute them to the Beaton Institute Archives, the Abbass family was acting with a noble purpose to sustain the history of the region and its people for the coming generations. The fonds is a considerable investment into the future of the locality and the whole country.
Abbass Studios at Present
These days, Abbass Studios continues its successful enterprise activity. The enterprise is managed by John and Blaise – the sons of John Abbass Sr. Since the original edifice was destroyed in 2014, the two brothers have offices in other places. John has a store in Halifax, at Scotia Square Mall, and Blaise administers the business from his home in Sydney (Beaton Institute, 2016). The studio suggests renovation of the images, taking pictures of business and marriage ceremonies, putting photos in frames, and other services (History of Abbass Studios, 2014).
While the Beaton Institute Archives fonds is a large set of archival data accessible permanently, the studio continues offering its materials for numerous exhibitions where art lovers can contemplate the results of many years of hard work and dedicated activity. Only in recent years, several events involving the artistic heritage of the Abbass brothers were held.
In 2014, there was a photography exhibit in Sydney, which represented the photos of Abbass Studios. As the Cape Breton Centre for Heritage and Science curator Vanessa Childs-Rolls remarked, the family pictures of Abbasses help to get an insight into the life of ordinary people in the past (Pottie, 2014). Childs-Rolls mentioned that as a rule, only rich people’s lives were photographed and widely represented in the chronicles. The Abbass Studios, on the contrary, kept innumerable pieces of evidence of the simple people and their work. The collection included pictures of sports activities, people at work, random images of children playing, and other people and events. According to Childs-Rolls, the exhibit made it possible to see “a little bit of everything and a little bit of everyone” (Pottie, 2014, par. 12).
In the following year, another presentation took place at Cape Breton Centre for Heritage and Science. This time, some new photographs were displayed in addition to the previous exhibit. As Blaise Abbass commented at the opening, his father introduced the art of photography to the people who could not possess a camera, and thus he “recorded the history of the community” (MacLeod, 2015, par. 7). Johns Abbass’ son considered the exhibit “spectacular” and expressed an opinion that his father “would be thrilled with what we are doing with his photographs” (MacLeod, 2015, par. 8).
Just a few days ago, the collaboration of the Abbass family, the Old Sydney Society, and the Beaton Institute made it possible to present another exhibition, consisting of 250,000 negatives. The presented collection illustrates the history of Cape Breton by showing old buildings, news stories, visits of celebrities, Christmas displays, and other issues. Apart from the pictures, the current exhibit suggests a large number of old cameras and photography equipment from the beginning of the industry up until now (Cape Breton Centre for Heritage and Science, 2016).
Conclusions
I think that the Abbass Studios Ltd. fonds at Beaton Institute Archives are valuable material for everyone interested in the history of photography and the Cape Breton community in particular. The photos tell the story of ordinary people; they show what life was like many years ago. They illustrate the potential of Cape Breton back then and trace the development of the community through many decades.
Every community has its history and wants that history to be passed to future generations. Thanks to the Abbass Studios Ltd. fonds, the people of Cape Breton have an impressive collection of historical moments. Thanks to the Abbass family, these moments were captured and found their way to the archives, where anyone can observe them and enjoy their liveliness and warmth.
References
- Beaton Institute (2016). Abbass Studios Ltd. fonds. Web.
- Cape Breton Business Hall of Fame (2015).
- Cape Breton Centre for Heritage and Science (2016). Community history: through the lens of Abbass Studios – Cape Breton Centre for Heritage and Science – Sydney. Cape Brenton’s GO and DO Guide. Web.
- John Abbass Sr. memorial golf tournament (2016).
- John Abbass Sr. scholarship (2013).
- MacLeod, K. (2015). Abbass Studios exhibit: back by popular demand. Cape Brenton Post. Web.
- Pottie, E. (2014). Abbass Studio collection tells story of family, Cape Breton. Herald News. Web.
- Rankin, A. (2014). Bringing a bygone era back to life. Cape Brenton Star.
- Stewart, W. (2007). John Abbass dead at age 84.Cape Brenton Post. Web.