David Ross McCord

David Ross McCord, KC (18 March 1844 – 12 April 1930) was a Canadian lawyer and philanthropic founder of the McCord Museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Life and career

McCord was born in Montreal to a family of lawyers and businessmen of Irish origin who had emigrated to Canada around the year 1760. He was the fourth child of John Samuel McCord (1801–1865), Judge of the Supreme Court, and Anne Ross, a daughter of David Ross (1770–1837) Q.C., of Montreal, Seigneur of St. Gilles de Beaurivage. His parents, in an upper class, bilingual marriage, inculcated in McCord a love of art (his father was a connoisseur and his mother was an accomplished watercolour artist) and science from an early age. Educated at the High School of Montreal, on leaving school he decided to continue the family tradition and study law at McGill University, eventually becoming a magistrate who gained fame by intervening on behalf of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

In 1878, McCord proposed the establishment of a national museum for Canadian history in his maternal city. His collection was first housed in his home and in 1919 his collection was moved to Jesse Joseph House on the McGill University campus. On October 13, 1921, the McCord Museum opened its doors with a collection of 15,000 artifacts from McCord's personal collections. Nine years later, McCord died in Guelph, Ontario. Upon his death, the university took charge of the museum, which today has more than 1.2 million objects.

McCord married Letitia Caroline Chambers (1841–1928). They lived at the old McCord family home, Temple Grove, on the Côte-des-Neiges, Montreal. They are buried together in the Mount Royal Cemetery.

In 2005, the Government of Canada Historic Sites and Monuments Board, placed a plaque outside the McCord Museum in Montreal that reads: