Photograph, Silver Gelatin: Toronto House at 71 Sparks Street, Ottawa

Photograph

-

Bytown Museum / Musée Bytown

Name/Title

Photograph, Silver Gelatin: Toronto House at 71 Sparks Street, Ottawa

Entry/Object ID

1996.999.61

Description

One black and white silver gelatin photograph of Toronto House, also known as Trotter House, at 71 Sparks Street in Ottawa where Thomas D'Arcy McGee was assassinated. Image shows the central door of the building as well as a placard to the viewer's right reading "HERE FELL / ON THE / 7th April 1868 / BY THE / ASSASSIN'S HAND / THOMAS D'ARCY / MCGEE.".

Made/Created

Date made

1868

Notes

Additional create date: 1869 Paper, Photographic, PHOTOGRAPH, PHOTOGRAPH

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Photograph

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Graphic Documents

Nomenclature Class

Documentary Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Search Terms

Photograph, Photograph

Legacy Lexicon

Object Name

Photograph, Silver gelatin

Research Notes

Notes

Around 2am on April 7, 1868, the Honourable Thomas D�Arcy McGee was walking back to his boarding house on Sparks Street after getting out of the House of Commons. There, he and the other members of Parliament had been debating until 2am. He was about to let himself into the house when his landlady, Mrs. Trotter heard him at the door and went to open it. She claims that she saw a bright flash of light and heard a loud bang, so she slammed the door and went for help. When she came back, she saw McGee’s body lying on the bloody sidewalk; he was shot at very close range through the back of the head. Mrs. Trotter did not see the perpetrator, but her nightgown had his blood on it and pieces of his false teeth were later recovered from the inside of the house.

Notes

The building burned in a fire that started January 21, 1869. In an attempt to save her belongings, Trotter fell on the sidewalk and fractured her arm. Afterwards, the insurance company who held her policy was liquidating and Trotter received only $3,000. The building on this site was never rebuilt.