One of the delights of our archives is just how many stories are contained even in non-narrative documents. Today, we dive deeply into the first seventy-five years of insurance…
Read MoreWhen we look into the past, an important question is whose eyes we are seeing through. In the case of documents like letters and annual reports, often we know the author and in many cases we can put together some salient facts about their lives that allow us to understand their perspective. With art, we are somewhere in between: we often know the artist’s identity and can make educated guesses about their perspective, but it is easy to think of visual representations as somewhat objective …
Read MoreIn an October 1973 letter to Archdeacon Jack Doidge, someone who signs himself only “John” chides the Archdeacon for misrepresenting St. Matthias’ history to the Montreal Gazette. “You are not correct,” he writes, “when you say that it [the old bell] is all that is left from the old church.” John, who was a member of the 1962 committee organising the 50th anniversary celebrations of the new building and who had been one of the last baptisms in the old building in 1910…
Read MoreThe sketch shows a rather well-travelled piece of St. Matthias’ history: the bell of the original building, forged in 1858 by Jones & Coy in Troy, New York. The plaque on the bell reads…
Read MoreOur first installment is a beautiful watercolour painting of the original church building, painted by Mrs. A.M. Sweeny in 1897. Westmount was quite different in the 1870s…
Read More