[4][5][6] Doane was born in 1814 in Barrington, Nova Scotia, Canada.
[6] In 1842 he went to Halifax, Canada to learn the daguerreotype process from William Valentine.
[7][8] By 1846, he had established a clientele including subjects such as Jeffrey Howe, John Sartain, and Lord Elgin, Louis Joseph Papineau, among others.
[6] Following his practice with Valentine, Doane travelled to the West Indies before setting up a studio in Montreal.
He and his wife had a daughter, Kathleen Maud Doane, who married the American artist Childe Hassam.