IDEA N°2 -NOSTALGIC COLLECTOR 

Consult these excerpts linked to the Web activity Inquiry Idea #2, "Nostalgic Collector".

3) What were the concerns of the McCord Museum’s founder?

“All his life, but particularly after the 1880s, David Ross McCord [1844-1930] laboured religiously to build a museum of Canadian history for his country. He was not alone in his obsession. Many Canadians, aware of their past and anxious about their future, turned to history to define and defend themselves. To many the future of the country looked doubtful. Expanding American territorial ambitions, internal conflict, regional dissent and stagnating economic growth punctuated by periodic depression had scarcely fulfilled the promise of Confederation. Two decades later, Canada seemed a failure. The revival of religious and cultural conflict – represented by the Riel Rebellion, the Jesuits’ Estates Act, the revival of Nova Scotian separatism and federal provincial conflict – shook Canadians’ confidence in their ability to resolve national differences. Similarly, industrialization and urbanization with their legacy of slums, poverty, disease and violence seemed to threaten the ideals of Canadian society”.

Miller, Pamela et al. La famille McCord, une vision passionnée / The McCord Family, A Passionate Vision, Montréal, Musée McCord d’histoire canadienne/McCord Museum of Canadian History, 1992, p.84.

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