Maude and her Museum

Photograph of the Argenteuil Regional Museum showing the large gallery, circa 1930.

The Historical Society of Argenteuil County Museum

Driven by a duty to remember, Maude continued her research and contributed to the preservation and promotion of the history of her community. In 1934, she and a group of passionate history enthusiasts from St. Andrews (which had become St. Andrews East) founded the Historical Society of Argenteuil County. In 1938, the Society opened a museum whose mission was to promote the history of Argenteuil’s pioneer families and to preserve this legacy for the Argenteuil region.

Black and white photograph of the nine founding members of the Historical Society of Argenteuil County. They are standing in front of and on the stairs of a large stone house with columns and dark shutters. Maude Abbott is second from left, wearing a black dress with white polka dots and a dark hat. The other three women are wearing smart dresses and hats and the five men are wearing suits.

The founding members of the Historical Society of Argenteuil County

“She was always aware, of course, that a museum, as an archival collection, is but an adjunct to history,” says Dr. Douglas Waugh in his biography, Maudie of McGill.

Floor plan of the Argenteuil Regional Museum exhibition rooms, 1938.

Floor plan of the Museum

It was the start of a great adventure and the founding of a vast and rich ethnological collection of 19th century artifacts. Over the years, the Argenteuil Regional Museum has accumulated a collection of more than 10,000 artifacts and thousands of archival documents. Maude Abbott was the Museum’s curator and applied the classification system she developed at the McGill Museum of Pathology to its collection.

Dr. H. E. MacDermot, Maude’s biographer, had no doubt that she was inspired by a great passion for her community:

“The stimulus that drove her on especially was the association of this museum with her own family, and with the countryside she loved so deeply.”

Photograph of the Argenteuil Regional Museum with small gallery and canoes, 1938.

The Museum seen from the Ottawa River

Correspondence for the opening of the Museum: Letter from Maude Abbott to J. P. Lanctôt concerning the visit of the Minister of Mines and Resources Mr. Crerar and former prime minister R.B. Bennet for the opening of the Museum on June 2, 1938.

Letter from Maude Abbott to J.P. Lanctôt, June 2nd 1938

Copy of a typed letter from Maude Abbott to R. B. Bennett dated June 2, 1938. She thanks him for his help with the Historical Society of Argenteuil County and The Barracks and invites him to visit St-Andrews.

Letter from Maude Abbott to R.B. Bennett, June 2nd 1938

Handwritten letter from Maude Abbott to Mrs. Kuhring, February 12, 1939, black and purple ink on sepia paper. She tells of plans to ask the Governor General to officially open The Barracks (housing the museum) and asks Mrs. Kuhring about the progress of the artifact boxes and shelving for the museum.

Letter from Maude Abbott to Mrs. Kuhring, February 12th 1939

$Handwritten letter from Maude Abbott to Mrs. Kuhring, February 5, 1939, black and purple ink on sepia paper. She mentions that she was not well enough for the railway journey and drive to Lachute, answers and asks questions about Museum business in response to Mrs. Kuhring’s previous letter, and explains that her recovery is slow due to a fractured rib and an old injury.$

Letter from Maude Abbott to Mrs. Kuhring, February 5th 1939

Letter from Maude Abbott to Mrs. Kuhring, February 6th 1939

A history of her community Maude and her sister: a life of resilience