George Barker (1844-1894) was born in Ontario, Canada and died in Niagara Falls, New York. Though his original aim was to be a landscape painter, Barker worked his entire career as a photographer. Settling in Niagara, New York, in 1862, he opened Barker’s Stereoscopic View Manufactory and Photograph Rooms, marketing views, as well as curios and souvenirs, of a natural wonder that embodied the power and optimism associated with America. By the mid-1880s spectacular images of the Falls were his trademark. They were composed for dramatic effect: a darkened sky, the contrast of churning white water with dark rocks, and an emphasis on tremendous scale.