MacDonald clan photos found by great-great grandson in Canadian antique shop

I came across this story in a Canadian newspaper, thought I'd share it.

Wayne MacDonald had gone into an old curiosity shop in Winnipeg - half looking for a Mother's day gift. Not finding anything in the main shop the owner pointed him in the direction of the back room saying he find find something there.

Not seeing anything Mr MacDonald was about to leave empty handed. That is, until Mr. MacDonald spotted a stack of black and white photographs in Edwardian and Victorian frames. He was intrigued. And then astonished. The faces staring up at him belonged to his long dead relatives, an influential Halifax clan of MacDonalds bound by marriage, friendship and political alliance to Sir Charles Tupper.

Sir Charles was a Father of Confederation, a former prime minister, a Baronet, a one-time captive of the rebel Louis Riel and, on a snowy day in May 2003, found among the faces in the ornate frames sprouting cobwebs in the dusty back room of an antique shop.

“My heart almost leapt out of my chest,” says Mr. MacDonald, the great-great grandson of one James MacDonald, the MacDonald patriarch, an original pal to Sir Charles, and a legal advisor to the Fathers of Confederation and justice minister and attorney general in the Cabinet of Sir John A. Macdonald (no relation).

Historically, the photos were a home run for Canadiana hunters; a glittering cache for history geeks, collectors and photography enthusiasts alike. That a MacDonald descendant should discover them was a gleefully lucky strike, especially when you consider the store’s proprietor had rescued the pictures while Dumpster diving with her 73-year-old mother some 25 years before.

“What are the odds of this happening?” Mr. MacDonald says. “It is serendipity.”

The 18 photos, taken between 1878 and 1915, include shots of Sir Charles, with his bushy sideburns, his frumpy wife, Lady Frances, and the similarly bewhiskered James MacDonald along with his many heirs, including the Edmonton arm of the family posing at their estate.

Beginning Wednesday, the entire batch of lovingly restored works will be showcased at the University of Alberta’s Faculty Club.

“We are surrounded by the Hollywood of American history and Canadians don’t seem to get all excited about their own historical figures,” says Mr. MacDonald. “But I think we have a very different country today because of people like James MacDonald and Sir Charles Tupper.”

Both men championed public education and religious tolerance during a time when poor Irish and French-Catholics were regarded as second-class citizens. Sir Charles, a Conservative, capped his 69-day term — the shortest ever among Canadian prime ministers — with defeat over the Manitoba Question in the 1896 federal election. (He argued in favour of French being taught in schools.)

History, as a judge, treats the two Nova Scotians as progressives who understood that in a far-flung nation, of multiple voices, and two languages, Canadians simply needed to get along.

It is a family story Wayne MacDonald has always been proud to tell, in words, and now in pictures.

“These photographs are a treasure,” he says. “They are absolutely invaluable to me.”