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A New Look – Using Local Assets to Promote Metis

Colour photograph of a young man and woman sitting at the foot of a spruce tree on rocky ground. In the background the St. Lawrence River and the bay at low tide. The lighthouse can be seen at the end of a rocky peninsula.

Photograph

Metis Beach a destination for young travelers, 1952

Chris Lund

Library and Archives Canada

Good promotion requires good photography. Local tourism promoters had to up their game in the 1950s in order to stay competitive. This meant new brochures, colour photography and messaging better adapted to the fast-evolving tourism marketplace.

In 1952, Hartland MacDougall was part of a photo shoot to produce a new image for Metis. MacDougall posed for a series of shots with a young woman whose identity is unknown. The objective was to show how attractive the destination was for youthful travellers. The photographs by National Film Board photographer Chris Lund were used in a brochure printed to promote the many attractions of the Gaspe Peninsula.

Hartland MacDougall had grown up in Metis. His parents Dorothy Molson and Hartland MacDougall had met and fallen in love on a tennis court. Their four children were Metis regulars who won many honours on both the golf and the tennis courts for their athletic prowess.

Young Hartland MacDougall was not a model for long. He went on to a successful career with the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Trust and a lifetime of community involvement that included founding Heritage Canada and championing the Royal Winter Fair and the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.