Bishop Ignace Bourget, 1862

Ignace Bourget was a fierce ultramontanist, supporting the supreme authority of the Pope in matters both secular and spiritual. He frequently clashed with the Canadian secular authorities...During the 1840s, Bourget led the expansion of the Roman Ca...

Lancashire Cotton Mill

"Work in textile mills and the logging industry—anything besides the backbreaking farm work in Québec—was what drew them. For example, six mills opened in the Lewiston area of the state of Maine alone between 1819 and 1869. When they did settle...

River & Factories in Lewiston, Maine

This photograph is one example to explain and situate the emigration of French (and other) Canadians to work in cotton mills in New England circa 1910. ...

Wedding Party, Lewiston, 1897

This photograph not only illustrates the large size of Franco-American families, which could typically include more than twelve children, but also the tight living conditions endured by many early immigrants. Enterprising landlords or even the compa...

War Fears : Bush Farm near Chatham

An Ontario bush farm in 1838. The tree stumps have not yet rotted enough to be removed. "Besides the destruction of lives, the burning of houses, the plunder of cattle, and all other species of moveable property, it [war] would throw back the state ...

John Molson (1763-1836)

John Molson (December 28, 1763 – January 11, 1836) was an English-born brewer and entrepreneur in colonial Quebec and Lower Canada. He was the founder of Molson Brewery. ....  John Molson was appointed to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. ...

William McGillivray

Scottish-born fur trader who succeeded his uncle as the last chief partner of the North West Company. He was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada and afterwards was appointed to the Legislative Council of Lower Canada. In 179...

Joseph Masson (1791-1847)

Joseph Masson (January 5, 1791 – May 15, 1847) was Canadian businessman, who is considered the first French Canadian millionaire. Masson was Member of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada from 1834 to 1838. ...

Colosseum with Stations of the Cross

Giovanni Battista Piranesi's rendering of the Colosseum "revealing the plan and exposing the structure. Piranesi's labels ... inform us of the location in which each rank of Roman society would have been seated, from the emperor and his court to the...