Happy Birthday Mr... McCord!

90 Treasures, 90 Stories, 90 Years

Stepping into the McCord Museum is like stepping into Montreal’s past. Walking its halls, taking in its exhibits, is like opening a book of stories about people and places that really existed, and exist still, through the living artefacts that make up the museum’s collection. The museum is named for the man who gave his passion and his own personal collection to what is now a family favourite in Montreal.

Special exhibits are nestled within the McCord’s permanent collection. I’d taken my family to see interactive exhibits on space travel, old toys, and one based on the work of children’s author Robert Munsch. My kids have drawn pictures, written letters, built castles, and hung paper apples from trees, all the while taking in treasures like old birch-bark canoes, snowshoes (which my son calls tennis shoes, because, he says “they used tennis rackets.” Indeed, snowshoes today bear little resemblance to those worn by Natives centuries ago). There are weapons, clothes, clocks and machines, old snowploughs, sports equipment, and even household items that your grandparents might have used when they were children.

The McCord is 90 years old this year. To celebrate that milestone they’ve taken on a not-so-new identity, along with a new signature, McCord Museum: Our People, Our Stories. And they’ve mounted a new exhibit to celebrate that identity, and the past nine decades it embodies, called 90 Treasures, 90 Stories, 90 Years.

The treasures on display reflect David Ross McCord’s deep love and passion for history, the history of Canada, Quebec, and of Montreal. The museum, which was officially inaugurated in 1921, is largely made up of McCord’s own collection, which is staggering, to say the least. He was a lawyer by trade, and managed, over the years, to collect countless pieces that, at the time, might not have been quite so antiquated:

A ledger book that belonged to weaver James Murdoch, who left his native Scotland and made his home in what is now Richmond, Quebec, in the Eastern Townships, 1881.

A journal that belonged to General James Wolfe, who perished, along with General Montcalm, in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

Louis Riel’s last wishes, written in his own hand, addressed to Father Alexis Andre.
A 19th century formal gown, a suit of velour worn by a Quebec surgeon around 1790.

An Iroquois headdress. An album of photos by celebrated photographer William Notman, offered, at one time, to the Prince of Wales at the inauguration of the Victoria Bridge, which still links the island of Montreal to the South Shore.