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"These downy frost feathers must have come from the goose that the old woman in the sky plucks when the snow falls."Charles Macnamara experimented with Gamma and red "A" screens to best capture frost on the window pane. In order to get contrast in the design, a dark background was necessary. At some windows he could use an adjacent building but he sometimes hung a black cloth from the roof outside the window. Macnamara disagreed with Seumas O'Sullivan who wrote that frost flowers were ghosts of flowers that died. He liked to think that the frost flowers were "flowers in their own right, flowers of winter scarcely less marvellous than the flowers of summer". He kept meticulous notes about which window he had photographed each pattern and what temperature created it.
"Why the back window should have two such distinct patterns as the 'seaweed' and the 'palm leaf' puzzled me for a while. Then I noticed that when the moisture on the pane began to freeze as the outside temperature gradually fell from 32 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, the 'palm leaf' was always produced."
Charles Macnamara
28 April 1940
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Plicated silicified limestone1930
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada
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Charles Macnamara wrote to an expert at the Geological Survey of Canada for information about this unusual rock formation. Dr. Morley Wilson suggested that it was probably silicified limestone. This formation was found on the shore of Lac des Chats on Lot 27, 4th Concession of Fitzroy Township. It is now covered by water due to the Chats Falls dam.Macnamara wrote to experts throughout the world seeking information about everything from rock formations to the type of berries Samuel de Champlain would have eaten when he journeyed up the Ottawa river in the 17th century.
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Letter from Richard Finnie to Charles Macnamara.15 June 1933
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Macnamara also corresponded with Oswald Finnie and his son Richard Finnie who were friends from Marshall's Bay. Richard Finnie toured the United States giving lectures about his Polar explorations which he documented using motion picture film. Richard was influenced by Macnamara's photography at an early age and 'Charlie Mac' took a genuine interest in his career.In this letter, Finnie mentions Charlie's good friend Liguori Gormley. He was one of the few people Macnamara was willing to share his Sundays with.
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Ligori Gormley at bird feeder1931
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada
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Ligori Gormley was an avid bird watcher who lived in Renfrew, Ontario. He would occasionally take Charles Macnamara on excursions in his car to various locations around the Ottawa Valley. Ligori Gormley and Charles Macnamara started the Christmas Bird Census in 1913.For more information about the Christmas Bird Census please follow the FIELD-NATURALIST storyline.
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Heavy going in the woods.1935
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada
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"Three days ago there was a splendid snow storm. True it delayed all the trains and blocked the roads, and everybody in Town had to cut deep pathways through their backyards. But in the woods and fields it has erased all old tracks and has spread a new clean sheet for wild creatures to write their doings on. And so it pleases me."Charles Macnamara photographed thousands of tracks in the snow including his own. At one time he gave a slide presentation based on these photographs. Reading the accompanying text helps one understand how he was able to learn about the characteristics of certain species based on where and when he found the tracks as well as the activities they indicated.
"Every man's hand is against the wolf, but in spite of the price set on his head and the execration in which he is held, he manages to live and is in no present danger of extinction. This is where a pack ran along the edge of a creek in the Black river country. I need hardly tell this highly intelligent and well-informed audience that the stories of wolves attacking man in America are all pure fabrications. No authentic instance exists. But the animals are very destructive of deer, and here are the remains of a deer killed and partially eaten by them. The way two of the deer's legs had been torn from the body afford a good idea of the strength of the wolves jaws."
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Modified Berlese Insect Collector1939
153 Daniel Street North, Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
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In the backyard of his home around 1939, Charles Macnamara collected insects using a screened funnel called a Modified Berlese Insect Collector. Very few things distracted Macnamara by this time in his life, except perhaps, the young family of his niece Jean and her husband Franklyn Cunningham.For more information about Macnamara's study of insects, please follow the ENTOMOLOGY storyline.
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Judith Cunningham15 July 1934
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada
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This photograph of Judith Cunningham at 8 months old, was taken at Marshall's Bay under one of the tall red pine trees that surround Macnamara's camp. A short walk from there towards the shore leads you to "Uncle Charlie's" cabin where Judith was treated to imported cookies, purchased just for her.73
Jamie and Alison Cunningham6 September 1942
153 Daniel Street N., Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
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