"Tecumseh House Shaving Parlors London, Ontario"
Datec. 1938
Dimensions9.9 x 15 cm (each)
Credit LineCollection of Museum London, 1965
Object number1965.038.001
Label TextThis is a photograph of the shaving parlour at London's Tecumseh House Hotel. One of the most well-known figures to have worked there is Shadrach Martin. Called "Shack," he was born in Nashville in 1833. His father was a free man and his mother a former slave. Shack began work as a cabin boy on a steamboat at 11 years old. He apprenticed to a Memphis barber at 13. After spending time in Cincinnati, Shack came to London in 1854. He didn't stay long. The late 1850s economic depression sent him back to the United States where. He worked as a barber on a Mississippi steamboat. Shack served on a gunboat during the American Civil War and received an Honourable discharge. Shack returned to London and became one of the city's best-known barbers. As early as 1868, he and James Worthington operated the Tecumseh House Hotel shaving parlor. At that time, barbering was a traditional Black occupation. They served an all-white clientele that included famous Londoners Sir John Carling and John Labatt, owner of the Labatt Brewery.
NamePostcard
