Mary (Margaret) Spencer was born in 1857 in Dunnville, Ontario, to Margaret and Abraham Spencer. That same year, the family moved to St. Catharines, where Mary began studying both art and photography — two disciplines that would shape her life’s work.

In 1890, she relocated with her mother and sister, Isobel, to Port Colborne, before eventually settling in Kamloops in 1899. Shortly after arriving, Spencer opened a photography studio and began offering oil painting classes. Her portrait work quickly became popular with Kamloops’ prominent citizens, while her scenic images of the region were widely distributed as postcards and souvenir booklets.

Spencer’s most notable assignment came in May 1906 when the Vancouver Daily Province hired her to document the capture and trial of infamous train bandit Bill Miner. The opportunity further cemented her reputation as one of the region’s earliest photojournalists.

In 1909, she sold her Kamloops studio to Mrs. L.M. Walker and moved with Isobel to Summerland to run an orchard. Although she reopened a studio there, she didn’t find the same success she’d enjoyed in Kamloops. Mary Spencer passed away in 1938 in Summerland, leaving behind a legacy of artistic talent, trailblazing journalism, and vivid documentation of early Kamloops life.

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