06/09/2018
This Daguerreotype was recovered from a privy that we excavated in advance of the new addition to Town Hall at Gananoque. What is now Town Hall was originally the home of John and Henrietta McDonald (built in 1831/2).
It was common practice for people to not only throw away household garbage, but also to ‘clean house’ by dumping all of the previous residents’ unwanted belongings into the privy upon the arrival of a new resident. This frequently results in a privy full of household items that can act as a sort of time capsule for archaeologists.
In this case, it would seem that the privy was likely filled up after Henrietta McDonald died in 1900, and the Daguerreotype (and hundreds of other artifacts) were probably deposited in the privy as part of a household clearance by Town Hall staff when the town acquired the property in 1911.
It is our belief that this image depicts John McDonald (not to be confused with Sir John A.), the husband of Henrietta and a major player in Gananoque business and politics until his death in 1860.
The only other known image of John McDonald is a painted portrait currently on display at Town Hall, where he appears younger than in the Daguerreotype, but is wearing the same clothes (see comments below for the portrait).
