National Archives in Montréal

Territory covered: Montréal, Laval, Lanaudière, Laurentides and Montérégie regions
Inaugurated in 1971

REFLECTION OF A METROPOLIS
Archives of a remarkable historical wealth

Ice Shove Commissioner Street, Montréal, H. C. Leighton Co., [circa 1900].
Laurette Cotnoir-Capponi fonds (P186, S9, P177a).

Located on Viger Avenue, in the imposing complex including the building of the former École des hautes études commerciales, the National Archives in Montréal is part of the network of 10 Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) archives centres, located throughout Québec.

The centre preserves numerous public and private archive fonds. This site is a must for genealogists and people researching family history; the reading room of the National Archives in Montréal can hold more than 200 people. It offers an imposing collection of materials of a genealogical nature, a large portion of which has been inherited from the Salle Gagnon of Montréal's central library. The centre's library includes more than 15,000 reference works, 100 periodical titles and a collection of 20,000 microfilms. Reading and copying equipment, including readers/digitizers, are made available to the patrons.

Each year, hundreds of patrons from the educational and professional sectors use the services provided for research concerning the history of their family, locality or region. Patrons also include historians, biographers, media representatives, producers, editors and lawyers. Efficient staff members guide them in the use of the wide range of materials preserved there.

The National Archives in Montréal has more than 24 linear kilometres of archives forming a coherent collection of fonds of a remarkable historical value and continuity. These archives can be used to trace the evolution of Québec society from the time of colonization to the present day.

 The collection includes:

Children of the Lacoste
and Globensky families,
with snowshoes, 1881?.
Landry family fonds
(P155, S1, SS2, D51).
Photo: William Notman.

• civil archives (19% of the archives preserved), including tutorship and curatorship files, probated wills, civil status registers and notaries' records (wills, marriage contracts, inventories made following death); these archives are among those that are most often consulted by researchers interested in tracing their origins, ancestors and family histories;
• judicial archives (46% of the archives preserved), which contain the files of the civil, penal and criminal cases brought before the courts from the time of the creation of the Montréal Baillage (balliwick) in 1644 up to the time of the Québec Court (1988);
• private archives (18% of the archives preserved) from the major families that have left their mark on the history of Montréal and Québec, such as the Papineau, Lacoste, Mercier, Gouin and Gérin-Lajoie families; from politicians, which provide a view behind the scenes of power, including René Lévesque, Claude Ryan, Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard; from the cultural world, represented by the archives of playwright Marcel Dubé, painter Ozias Leduc, singer Pauline Julien, author and humorist Claude Meunier, poet Émile Nelligan, novelist Jacques Ferron, choreographer Fernand Nault and many others; from companies (Consolidated Bathurst Incorporated, Charbonneau et Lamothe Ltée); from social or popular groups such as the Fédération québécoise du guidisme et du scoutisme or the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire;
• government archives (17% of the archives preserved) demonstrating the role played by the State in several fields: the archives of the Grands Voyers (road inspectors), those of the various public inquiry commissions, the organizing committee of the 1976 Olympics, Radio-Québec (now Télé-Québec), and many other organizations.

More than 8,500,000 images preserved at the National Archives in Montréal come from the archive collections of amateur or professional photographers, including:

• Studio O. Allard;
• Point du Jour Aviation (rural environment);
• Denis Brodeur (sports);
• Antoine Desilets (media photographer);
• Daniel Kieffer (theatre);
• Conrad Poirier (reporter-photographer);
• Gabriel Desmarais (Gaby);
• the collections of the artists of the Office du film du Québec, including Gabor Szilasi; and
• caricatures by Chartier, Gagnier, Phaneuf, Pijet, Berthio and Girerd (8870 drawings).

The architectural archives collections include 110,000 drawings of projects for religious, public and commercial buildings, as well as private residences. Several collections include maps and plans (73,000 items) which researchers can use to determine the locations of the lands owned by their ancestors or to track changes in the occupation of a territory.

Certified private archive services

Reading room of the
National Archives in Montréal, 2005.
Photo: Alain Michon.

Check the Certified private archives services list (in French only) to find the one in your region.

Contact information

A biplane in a field, July 4, 1915.
William Murray fonds (P401, S1, P374).

National Archives in Montréal
Édifice Gilles-Hocquart
535, avenue Viger Est
Montréal (Québec)  H2L 2P3
Metro Berri-UQAM or Champ-de-Mars

Opening hours

Monday through Friday: from 9 am to 12 noon and from 1 pm to 5 pm
Wednesday evening: from 5 pm to 8 pm
Saturday and Sunday: closed

Textual records

Phone: 514 873-1100 or 1 800 363-9028, option 4 then option 1
or 514 873-1101, ext. 6260
Fax: 514 873-2980
archives.montreal@banq.qc.ca

Iconographic, cartographic, architectural and audiovisual archives:
icono.cam@banq.qc.ca or 514 873-1101, extension 6351

Workshop or tour information:
animation.archives@banq.qc.ca