User:Curiocurio/Frank Gowen

Frank Henry Gowen (1878–1946) was a Canadian photographer. He grew up in Wiltshire, England, and served an apprenticeship with a London photographer. Gowen emigrated to Canada where in 1905 he opened a studio in Brandon, Manitoba. He moved to Vancouver in 1913, and starting three years later, he held the position of official photographer to Stanley Park. In 1920, he formed a partnership with Alfred Sutton to form the Gowen Sutton Company. It became one of the largest Canadian publishers of real photo postcards. Gowen ended his partnership with Sutton in 1930. He then opened a souvenir kiosk at Prospect Point in Stanley Park which he operated until two years before his death in 1946.

Biography
Frank Henry Gowen was born in Sutton Benger, Wiltshire, on 1 November 1879, the second of four children. His father, Reginald Gowen, owned a furniture store in Melksham, Wiltshire. As a young man, Frank Gowen belonged to the Melksham Camera Club and he was apprenticed to an unknown London photographer. Afterwards, Gowen accompanied his younger brother Reginald to Manitoba who was looking for a job on a farm. Frank Gowen returned to England, but he soon needed to go back to Canada as his brother was stricken with typhoid fever. He decided to settle, and in 1905, Gowen opened a photography studio in Brandon, Manitoba. He specialized in scenic photography while also taking studio portraits and pursuing some commercial work. Gowen preferred not to engage in newspaper assignments, as he didn't want to capitalize on people's misfortunes. On 30 March 1907, he married Nellie Gertrude Hearn in Brandon. They eventually had three daughters and one son. By 1911, Gowen owned a branch studio in nearby Wawanesa. During the last two years of his stay in Manitoba, he maintained a partnership with the photographer Alexander Davidson, as the firm Davidson & Gowen, photographers and sellers of art supplies.