# McCord Stewart Museum

The McCord Stewart Museum, formerly known as the McCord Museum of Canadian History, is a public research and teaching museum. The Museum’s Archives, Documentary Art, Dress, Fashion and Textiles, Indigenous Cultures, Material Culture and Photography collections, containing 2.5 million images, objects, documents and works of art, position it as the custodian of a remarkable historical heritage. It is located directly across the street from McGill University, in the downtown core of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

## History

On October 13, 1921, the McCord National Museum, as it was then called, moved to the former McGill Union building, designed by Percy Erskine Nobbs in the Arts and Crafts tradition. The collection was based on the McCord family collection. Since 1878, David Ross McCord had been adding to the already considerable collection assembled by his family since their arrival in Canada. Over the years, he developed the plan of founding a national history museum in Montreal, at that time Canada's metropolis.
The building that now houses the museum was administered by McGill University for over sixty years, when it was the seat of the student government. After riots targeted at the Students' Society of McGill University (SSMU) led to the building's storming and several executives being taken hostage, McGill University set out to build a more secure building, University Centre, the current seat of SSMU. Leading members of the community lent their support to the museum over the years. Today, the McCord Museum is supported by the governments of Canada, Quebec and Montreal, and by a large network of members, donors and sponsors.

## Collection

The museum was founded in 1921 by David Ross McCord, based on his own family collection of objects. Since then, the museum's holdings have increased substantially.

### Indigenous Cultures

This collection of more than 16,000 objects that documents many aspects of the ways of life, arts, cultures and traditions of the Indigenous Cultures in Quebec. It also includes a number of objects from communities living in Alaska and the northern United States.
In this collection, there are more than 7,300 historical indigenous objects, dating from the early 1800s to 1945 (clothing, accessories, headgear, domestic tools, baskets, hunting weaponry, etc.) and more than 8,500 archaeological objects dating from about 10,000 years ago to the 16th century (stone tools, potsherds).

### Dress, Fashion and Textiles

This collection of 27,000 garments and accessories consists of women's dresses, parasols, hats, fans and footwear, many created by some of Montreal's greatest 20th century designers. The menswear in the collection includes suits, coats and accessories. There is also an important selection of embroidered samplers, quilts and other textiles, including North America's oldest known patchwork quilt (1726).

### Photography

This collection of more than 2,15 million images consists vintage Canadian photographs including prints and glass negatives, stereograms, composites, painted photographs, daguerreotypes and other types of early photographic processes, family albums, vernacular photographs, documentary photographs, artist portfolios, cameras and photographic equipment from 1840 to the present day.

### Notman Photographic Archives

This collection includes 400,000 photographs and various items of early photographic equipment and accessories. It provides a visual history of Montreal and Canada from the 1840s to the present.
The collection contains the William Notman & Son Photographic Studio fond constituting more than 400,000 photographic images (including 200,000 glass negatives) dating mostly from 1840 to 1935. The collection also includes approximately 700,000 images taken by other photographers.
* Photography by Wm. Notman & Son: Stormy day, Saint Catherine Street, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
* Photography by William Notman: portrait of Peter Redpath, 1871
* Photography by Alexander Henderson: McGill College Avenue, looking south from Sherbrooke Street, Montreal, 1869

### Documentary Art

This collection of 92,000 iconographical pieces illustrates the personalities, places and events that made the history of Montreal, Quebec and Canada, from the 18th to the 21st centuries.
It includes paintings (oils, acrylics and watercolours, mostly from the 19th century), miniatures, silhouettes, prints (maps, plans, portraits, mostly from 1751 to 1900) and caricatures from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries (John Collins, Serge Chapleau and Terry Mosher alias Aislin).

### Material Culture

The 18,860 objects included in this collection documents the material environment within which Montrealers, Quebeckers and Canadians lived in past centuries.
This collection consists of furniture, glassware, ceramics, ironware, sculpture, hunting equipment, sports equipment, items of folk art and a major collection of 19th century toys.

### Archives

This collection, which total 340 linear meters, and 3,500 rare books includes manuscripts, correspondence, personal journals and other documents showing the history of Canada from the 18th century to the present.
The documents come from families (the Dessaulles, McCord, Armstrong-Deligny-Philips and Bacon families); from well-known individuals (Sir George-Étienne Cartier, Maurice-Régis Blondeau, Hélène Baillargeon Côté); from companies and associations (Women's Art Society of Montreal, Victoria Rifles of Canada, Gibb & Co.); and from collections (New France, British Empire, Concert and Theatre Programs, Valentines).
The museum's exterior features the sculpture Totem urbain / histoire en dentelle, an allegorical representation of Montreal history, by Pierre Granche.

## Affiliations

The museum is affiliated with the CMA, CHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.