Musée McCord | |
The McCord Museum
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Established | October 13, 1921 |
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Location | 690, rue Sherbrooke Ouest Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3A 1E9 |
Coordinates | 45°30′16″N 73°34′25″W / 45.5044°N 73.5737°WCoordinates: 45°30′16″N 73°34′25″W / 45.5044°N 73.5737°W |
Type | History museum |
Collection size | 1,440,000 objects, images and manuscripts |
Visitors | 79,082 (2011) |
President | Suzanne Sauvage |
Public transit access | McGill |
Website | www |
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, next to McGill University, in downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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 museum was administered by McGill University for over sixty years until it became a private museum. 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.
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.
This collection of 15,800 objects documents many aspects of the ways of life, arts, cultures and traditions of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. 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 aboriginal 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).