McCord Stewart Museum
The McCord Museum (in French, Musée McCord) is a public research and teaching museum dedicated to the preservation, study, diffusion, and appreciation of Canadian history. The museum, whose full name is McCord Museum of Canadian History, is located at 690 Sherbrooke Street West (45°30′15.80″N 73°34′24.60″W / 45.5043889°N 73.5735000°W), next to McGill University, in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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, and now counts:
- 13,200 ethnological and archaeological objects
- 16,600 objects in the costume and textiles collection
- the contents of the Notman Photographic Archives and Textual archives (1,250,000 photographs and 200 linear meters)
- 65,000 paintings, prints and drawings
- 28,000 objects in the decorative arts collection
as well as 4,000 documentary files.
On October 13, 1921 the McCord National Museum, as it was then called, opened its doors, housed in a building provided by McGill University. 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 museum was administered by McGill University for over sixty years until it became a private museum. Leading members of the community, including the families of Walter M. Stewart, Thomas H.P. Molson and John W. McConnell, 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.
One of the jewels of the museum's collection is the Notman Photographic Archives, originally collected by photographer William Notman, which contains over 450,000 photographs taken in Montreal between 1840 and 1935.
