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Historical Photos

A brief history of the collection of old photos

The Kamloops Camera House is very proud of its fine collection of old images of Kamloops and area. The bulk of our collection have traveled with the store for many years.

In 1919 Mr. A.C. Taylor opened a stationary store and photo studio in the 300 block of Victoria street. Mr Taylor employed photographers to record the businesses and views of Kamloops.

In the 1940’s Mr. Taylor sold the business to Mr. Passmore who at about the same time acquired the J.J. Embry Studio which was located upstairs on the northwest corner of 3rd. & Victoria street. He amalgamated the two businesses and moved the shop to 250 Victoria Street.

In 1953 Mr Albert Kalten purchased the business and expanded it to include retail sales of photographic equipment and black & white film processing.

In the early 1970’s We were cleaning up the basement and discovered thousands of old negatives some dating back to 1919.

We are pleased to make our collection of images of Kamloops available to all. We make prints of these images working initially from the negative with a high resolution scan. We will present a small sampling on this web site and endevor to change them with some regularity. We are fortunate that many of our old clients also share our love of the history of this area. We regularly receive donations of images from these people.