John A. Macdonald, ca. 1842-1843, possibly done in Edinburgh, Scotland, by an unknown artist

A portrait of a struggling young lawyer, probably done at the time of his first marriage. Macdonald (1815-1891), son of a Scottish immigrant family, had plenty of ambition and wanted to enter politics, but at this point, he had little money and his first wife was beginning a chronic and ultimately fatal illness.

Who would have thought that over the next five decades John A. Macdonald would become a highly-respected and internationally known statesman as Canada’s first prime minister?

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