Pat Moulson, the curator of a debut exhibit on display at the Discovery North Bay Museum featuring the works of acclaimed former North Bay Nugget photographer John McNeill has tried service clubs, the late McNeill's colleagues and family, and local historians, all to no avail when it comes to identifying the mystery photograph.
It surely sticks in the craw of such a thorough and fastidious scholar and volunteer, such as Moulson, that all of the remarkable photos in the exhibit entitled Snapshot of the Bay: The Photographs of John McNeill were (after much legwork and deduction) eventually identified and properly labelled. Except one.
Adjacent to "Man at Work" as the mystery photo has been titled, is a small card affixed to the gallery wall. It reads: "The location of this photograph is unknown. Suggestions have ranged from the foundations of the BOMARC missile site to the new Dupont plant, to the upgrade of the sewage treatment plant. All of these locations were in the news between 1950 and 1963. Can you help?"
McNeill was born in Sturgeon Falls in 1927 and demonstrated his grasp of various art forms early in life. In 1950, he was hired as a staff photographer for the Nugget. According to colleague Colin Vezina, who spoke at the grand opening of the exhibit Wednesday, McNeill was a visionary beyond his time.
McNeill convinced the Nugget to fund his trip to Milwaukee (on his own vacation time) to gather information about a new photographic innovation, 35 mm film. Not long after his return to North Bay, with the financial backing of the Nugget, McNeill's dedication resulted in the newspaper becoming the first in the country to convert to 35 mm film. McNeill was also among the first of his day to employ underwater photography.
In 1963, McNeill was hired by the Globe and Mail where he served nearly 30 years as a prize-winning photographer. McNeill has been recognized for photographs with subjects such as Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela. His 1977 photo of the Queen and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau can be found in the lobby of the Library and Archives of Canada building in Ottawa.
Moulson thanked McNeill's family, who were on hand for the ceremony on the second floor of the museum where the exhibit is staged, for sharing the photographs that capture a historically significant era in North Bay with the public. McNeill's photos and workbooks are in the process of being donated to the Ontario Archives.
The exhibit will run for one month, free of charge. A donation from the Retired Teachers of Ontario was made at the ceremony, and the exhibit will be brought to local schools for art and photography classes. As Moulson said, "There are various reasons why schools can't come to the museum anymore, so we will bring the museum to them."
