Photographer Ralph Mason to speak at the Old Sydney Society

Photographer Ralph Mason will speak at the next meeting of the Old Sydney Society on Thursday, November 22, 7:30PM at the Old Bank building, 175 Charlotte Street in Sydney. The title of his talk is The Mason and Cockell families in Cape Breton: Perspectives on Cape Breton Family and Business History, 1900-2003.

Through a series of dramatic, historic photos, Mason explores the business connections of his family, the Mason and Cockell families. The Cockells operated meat markets in Whitney Pier and Sydney. The Masons started with a small store in Glace Bay in 1901 and within 16 years Charles Mason opened a successful wholesale fruit and vegetable business in Sydney. Other family members opened furniture stores and they became one of Cape Breton’s most successful entrepreneurial families.

Ralph Mason was born in Sydney in 1933. His grandfather Charles Mason had moved to Glace Bay in 1900 and had several stores there before moving to Sydney and opening Mason’s Wholesale. Roy Mason, Ralph’s father, had a furniture store on Charlotte Street, and took over Mason’s Wholesale when Charles retired.

Ralph worked at the wholesale for a few years and then went to school to study business at Maritime Business College in Halifax. Upon completion, his father hired him to manage the furniture business, which he did for ten years before it was decided to sell the business.

“I had a couple of other jobs after that but decided to go to college to study photography,” says Mason, who became a professional photographer in 1973. He would go on to open his own photography business in Sydney before retiring after nearly 30 years.

As a professional photographer Ralph Mason collected and produced stunning, historic photos over the years. Some of the themes he covers—and that will be on display for this talk—include the Bill Lynch shows, horse racing on Sydney Harbour, the Rotary shows, the Lions Club, men and women, beauty pageants, the Broughton Coal Mine, historic buildings and streetscapes.

Everyone is welcome. Free and open to the public.