When Frederick Glen McDermid opened his studio and engraving plant in downtown Edmonton on September 1st, 1912, the city, like photography itself, was growing rapidly in popularity. McDermid was one of those who arrived with the waves of new settlers, drawn by opportunity and the promise of a better future. He had been born in 1880 and lived in Petrolia, Ontario, before travelling to various cities in Canada and the United States.

His McDermid Engraving Company was located at 123 Rice Street (101A Avenue near 101st Street). One newspaper account said the premises included “an up-to-date art department, model dark room and the latest approved cameras and machinery and other apparatus for making zinc etchings and half-tones from drawings and designs for maps, etc.”

McDermid Engraving moved to 10133 101st Street in 1922, and the following year, McDermid left Edmonton for Oregon and Joseph Tyrell became the president of the company. The name of the business was changed to McDermid Studios, which endures as an Edmonton company to this day. From 1929 to 1940, the company was owned by Charles R. Morrison, one of the original shareholders and former managing editor of the Edmonton Journal. His daughter, Muriel, took over the company and her husband, Bert Hollingshead, became manager.

The studio moved to 10024 101st Street and later to 9850 112th Street. After Morrison died in 1967, Muriel’s son, David, operated the business, and then it was overseen by Charles Morrison’s great-granddaughter, Gay and her husband Mark Perry.

Most of the early McDermid photographs — those taken between 1912 and 1929 — were sold and donated to the Glenbow Archives in Calgary between 1957 and 1972. Today, the McDermid Studio fonds comprise more than 17,000 photographs in the Glenbow collection.