How does this artwork elucidate its Background?
Alexander Wood (January 1772 – September 11, 1844) was a Scottish merchant and magistrate in Upper Canada. In 1810, in the course of his investigation into a rape case in which the victim stated she did not know her assailant's identity but had managed to scratch his penis, Wood personally inspected the genitals of multiple male suspects. The circumstances of the investigation led to accusations of impropriety and rumours of homosexual activity, though formal charges were not pursued against Wood on the condition that he return to Scotland. Wood departed Upper Canada in 1810, but returned to Toronto in 1812 and purchased fifty acres of land at Carlton and Church streets; the area became known as Molly Wood's Bush and is presently the site of Church and Wellesley, Toronto's gay village. Owing to these associations, Wood is frequently commemorated and memorialized as an early figure in Canadian LGBT history.
Church Carlton Canadian LGBT history Church and Wellesley LGBT Upper Canada magistrate Toronto Alexander Wood gay village