Atwater Library and Computer Centre

Text and research by Susan McGuire.

The Atwater Library traces its origins back to 1828, when the first mechanics' institute established in continental British North America was formed in Montreal. Today, with its official name, the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal, it is the sole survivor of the many mechanics' institutes established in Canada in the 19th century. The rest were either closed or merged into public library systems. The Atwater Library and Computer Centre carries on proudly, aware of its traditions, but focused on the future.

In 1828, some prominent Montreal citizens formed the Montreal Mechanics Institution because they saw a need to educate workers for the emerging industries of the growing city. Patron of the new organization was Sir James Kempt, governor of Lower Canada and first president was Louis Gugy, sheriff of Montreal. Vice-presidents were industrialist John Molson; merchant Horatio Gates; Louis-Joseph Papineau, speaker of the Assembly of Lower Canada, and the Assembly's representative from the west end of the city; and Rev. Henry Esson, educator and Church of Scotland pastor of the St. Gabriel Street Church. Active members appear to have been mainly artisans, craftsmen and shopkeepers who were employers.

Patterned after mechanics institutions that had already sprung up in England and Scotland, the aim of the new Montreal Institution was, according to Rev. Esson, "to see to the instruction of its members in the arts and in the various branches of science and useful knowledge." Rather than classroom activities, the institution ran a lecture program, organized weekly information sessions and had a library and reading room.

It was a time when the building trades were expanding rapidly, highlighted by the construction of the Lachine Canal and Notre Dame Church. The population of Montreal was about 23,000, and the principal commercial and social centre of the city was St. Paul Street. Many educational institutions were developing at the time, including McGill University which began teaching classes in the arts and in medicine in 1829.

By 1834, pre-Rebellion political unrest in Montreal, as well as rivalries based on religion and educational objectives, led to a suspension of activities of the Institution. The last meeting was held on March 24, 1835.

Second Institute Formed: A New Era

In 1840, with the Rebellion of 1837 passed and Montreal returning to political peace, the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal was formed--a revitalization of the previous Institution. The constitution was essentially the same, equipment was obtained from the earlier group, courses of study were to be similar, and eighty members of the first group were eligible for free membership for a year (twenty-four joined). John Redpath, a builder, who had been an officer of the previous organization in 1833, became president of the new Mechanics Institute.

A public lecture program was established as "the best means of awakening in the public a desire for knowledge." (Annual Report 1841) Night classes were created to offer at various times, reading, writing, arithmetic, French, and architectural, mechanical and ornamental drawing to apprentices and workmen. Elementary school courses were offered, but the main focus was on secondary studies. This was one of the first organized efforts in Canada to encourage adult education, and it continued virtually uninterrupted for nearly thirty years, when the courses were taken over by the government.

Beginning in 1843 and continuing for some years, small industrial exhibitions were held annually by the Mechanics' Institute to present to the public the scientific advances being made by various industries active in the city. Called the Mechanics' Festival, they were popular social events in Montreal and included vocal and instrumental music and addresses. They were held in Bonsecours Hall.

In 1845, the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal was incorporated by an Act of the old Parliament of Canada. (Under the Act of Union, the Province of Canada had been created in 1840 from the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada.)

In 1855, the Mechanics' Institute opened its own building, at the corner of Great St. James and St. Peter streets (now St. Jacques and St. Pierre, in Old Montreal). The building was decorated with banners such as "To Make a Man a Better Mechanic and the Mechanic a Better Man." With a large lecture hall, it became one of the main cultural centres of the city, and remained so for some thirty years until the residential population shifted north and west.

By 1859, the library of the Institute had become one of its most important features. The annual report notes: "The library and reading room form the chief attractions of the Institute, and the manner in which these departments are supplied and managed will always have great influence on the membership list."

For several years beginning in the late 1850s, Alexander Cowper Hutchison taught architectural drawing at the Institute. The son of a Scottish-born stonemason, A.C. Hutchison had himself taken mechanical drawing at the Institute, and went on to become one of Montreal's leading architects. He was involved in the design and construction of major buildings in Montreal, including the Redpath Museum, Erskine and American United Church and the old La Presse building. His firm, Hutchison, Wood and Miller, would later design the current Atwater Library building.

In November 1868, a mechanicial drawing class with twenty-four students having a syllabus of practical geometry, details of engines, and other machinery and solid geometry, became the last class sponsored by the Mechanics' Institute. The government-sponsored Board of Arts and Manufacturers took over running of the classes, which were offered free to members of the Institute and as a result attracted more pupils. The library and the lectures series became the main focus of the Mechanics' Institute.

Moving West

By 1910, support was growing for selling the St. James Street building and relocating the Institute closer to residential areas. The value of the land had increased vastly during the previous fifty years and it was now in the centre of what had become the city's financial and banking district. The building was sold, and the new site at the corner of Atwater and Tupper streets was chosen. Budget for building and equipping the new building was $120,000. Sufficient proceeds of the sale were invested to provide income to cover projected maintenance and operating costs of $12,000 a year. President during the period 1913-1920 was William Rutherford.

Construction of the building was begun in 1918 and completed in 1920. Design was by the architectural firm of Hutchison, Wood and Miller, and by that time A. C. Hutchison was retired and the drawings were prepared by his grandson. His brother, builder J. Henry Hutchison, who served on the Mechanics' Institute board of management, headed the building committee.

In 1920, with great ceremony, the new building was opened. In January 1995, seventy-five years later, Montreal architect Susan Bronson spoke at a special evening commemorating the building opening. During her talk, she described the exterior of the building as follows:

"[The building has] a solid sense of architectural integrity resulting from its simple and clear composition, selective and consistent detailing, and high-quality construction.

"[It] is clad in buff brick with certain features--cornice, frames around the upper floor windows, medallion reliefs, panels below the windows, band moulding that signifies the ground level--highlighted in Indiana limestone. The ground floor, the level of which is signified on the exterior by a continuous stone moulding, is raised to allow maximum light to enter the lower level. Large arched windows on three sides provide the building with the prestige of a Renaissance palazzo; yet its detailing is simple and dignified, almost modern...

"The Atwater Avenue facade, facing the public square across the way, is perfectly symmetrical. Its composition is dominated by a central doorway that fits snugly into the centre arched opening. On Tupper Street, also a major facade, the composition is similar....The west facade has a series of long narrow windows that are proportioned according to the spacing of the two storeys of stacks inside....Nine medallions on the north, east and south facades illustrate aspects of art, science and industry."

Changing Focus

In 1962, the library changed its name to the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal to reflect its interest in serving a wider public. In fact, the focus of its book collection was in the process of changing to fiction, biography and travel, with the technical aspects of the collection becoming more of historical and research interest.

In 1977 and 1978 efforts were made to make the library work better for its constituency at a time of declining revenues and dramatic political change in Quebec. The large-print book collection was expanded. Books-by-mail, a project of president Thomas Anglin, began operations. It was widely successful, reaching a peak in 1983 when 4,697 books were distributed to members across Canada, especially in the relatively isolated North Shore of the St. Lawrence River. An Atwater Library children's division was initiated, catering to three to twelve-year-olds.

In the 1978 annual report, Tom Anglin reported that financial assets were being depleted to meet operating expenses. He spoke of the possibility of selling the building to the adjoining Reddy Memorial Hospital, but he indicated that the Reddy had offered to pay only the value of the land. Dr. Norman Eade, then a member of the board, notes that "at the time, among the moves contemplated was to reestablish the library in the Mile End district of Montreal, a multi-cultural area where there was no library. Subsequently, the City of Montreal established a library there in a former Anglican church."

In his 1980 president's annual report, Dr. Eade said that the decision had been made to revitalize the library in its current Atwater Avenue location and "leave intact a legacy that had been entrusted to our care." This would involve a move into the computer era. According to Dr. Eade, "offering computer courses and providing computer support outside of the university context seemed an apppropriate avenue in keeping with the traditions of the library."

In 1981, the Montreal Children's Library moved its head office and main branch into the lower level of the Atwater Library building. This was made possible by a grant in memory of Judith Ewen Reford. When the move took place, the Atwater Library children's division was closed.

In 1984, Dr. Ted Connolly (president 1982 and 1983, and in 1984 vice-president and chairman of the board's computer committee) introduced the beginnings of the present-day computer centre within one of the main floor reading rooms. A classroom for computer courses was established on the second floor. A grant from the federal Ministry of Communications enabled the project to go forward.

1990 was a year of financial crisis for the library as a result of increasing operating costs and a major decline in government grants. Financial assets had been depleted. Rather than close the facility, the membership decided to reduce paid staff to three, increase the responsibilities and number of volunteers, and seek new methods of financing. Over the next couple of years, charitable foundations were approached for help by library president Ralph Leavitt, and the response enabled the library to continue operations. New directions were examined, and it was decided to improve and expand computer facilities for the public.

By 1994, through the efforts of Anne Pasold (president in 1992, 1994 and 1995), one of the reading rooms was re-equipped and refurbished to house an enlarged computer centre. Architect and board member Susan Bronson ensured that the reading room was restored in a manner faithful to its architectural beginnings.

In 1996, pentium computers were purchased for the computer classroom, with funding from a charitable foundation. The same year, as a result of budget constraints, the books-by-mail project that had been so successful in the 1980s was regretfully cancelled.

In 1996, Andrea Rutherford Burgess became president of the Atwater Library, continuing a family tradition. Three of Mrs. Burgess' relatives, great-uncle Henry Bulmer (1851); great-grandfather William Rutherford (1889); and her grandfather William Rutherford (1913-1920) were all presidents of the Mechanics' Institute.

In 2003 with the generous help of several charitable foundations, the library catalogue automation system became available.

In 2004, the organization put new emphasis on becoming more involved in the surrounding community, and developed new or expanded partnerships with groups associated with Peter McGill Community Council, IleSansFil, Quebec Writers Federation, and others.

In September 2005, the ALCC building was declared a National Historic Site.

Bibliography

Atwater Library. Atwater Library of Mechanics' Insitute of Montreal, 1972
Bronson, Susan. 75th Building Inauguration Anniversary Lecture 1995, Atwater Library (unpublished)
Eade, Dr. Norman. telephone interview, October 10, 1997
Hamilton, William. Mechanics Institute of Montreal, 1920
Kuntz, Harry. The Educational Work of the Two Montreal Mechanics' Institutes (master's thesis), Concordia University, January 1993
Roberts, Leslie. Montreal: From Mission Colony to World City, Macmillian, Toronto, 1969
Robbins, Nora. "The Montreal Mechanics Institute: 1828-1870," Canadian Library Journal, pp. 373-379

BY Susan McGuire

The view of education that predominated in Anglican-dominated, early 19^th century England looked with disfavour on educating the working classes.  Anglican leaders believed national prosperity depended on the workingman’s hard work, deference, sobriety, and religious virtue.

The more liberal Scots began to think that having workers knowledgeable in science and technology would lead to greater prosperity for everyone. Thus it was in Scotland that the mechanics’ institute movement began. Later, in 1823, under George Birkbeck, MD, a Mechanics’ Institution was established in London, and its concepts spread worldwide.  

The purpose of a mechanics’ institute was to give evening instruction in technical subjects and in the arts to working adults, in a setting free of religious and political affiliations. Leaders in the community would provide initial direction and funding, but the institutes would be run from among the members who were master craftsmen and employers of labour.  The by-laws were set up to achieve this purpose.

The initiator of the Montreal Mechanics’ Institution in 1828 was Rev. Henry Esson, one of Montreal’s intellectual leaders. The MMI constitution mirrored that of the London institution, and the first executive was a cross-section of leading Montreal residents:

• President was Louis Gugy, sheriff of Montreal, aged 58. Swiss-born of military origins, his family were Anglicans in Trois-Rivières, but he was a member of Rev. Esson’s church.

Vice-presidents were:

• Louis-Joseph Papineau, Canadian-born lawyer and politician, aged 42.  He was a founder in 1822 of the British & Canadian School, a free or low-fee and non-sectarian school for poor working-class children, both French and English-speaking.
• Horatio Gates, American-born Presbyterian merchant in foodstuffs and potash, aged 41.  A founder of Bank of Montreal in 1817, he also was on the board of the British & Canadian School, and was a member of Rev. Esson’s church.
• Rev. Henry Esson, Scottish-born pastor of St. Gabriel’s Presbyterian church, teacher and owner of a school, aged 35. In 1844, he moved on to teach philosophy, literature at history at what became Knox College of the University of Toronto.
• John Molson, English-born industrialist, aged 65. Though a Unitarian by instinct, he was a member of Rev Esson’s church. (The Anglican church did not appeal to him, even though he had been married in it.)

Secretary was P. H. Ogilvy, a teacher in Rev. Esson’s school.  Treasurer was William Shand, a cabinetmaker and builder.

Adapted from an article that originally appeared in the Westmount Independent.

Susan McGuire is the official historian of the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal. You can contact her by email at:
s.f.mcguire AT sympatico DOT ca.  

By Susan McGuire

Montreal’s development into an industrial and manufacturing metropolis was spearheaded by men who belonged to the Montreal Mechanics’ Institution in 1828-35, and to the Mechanics’ Institute of Montreal after 1840. They included men of different skills in the building and shipping trades, as well as those who were architects, lawyers, doctors, bankers, grain merchants and retail merchants. These are some of them:

• Edward Maxwell joined MMI in 1829, the year he came from Scotland, and was elected to the Managing Committee in 1832. In the early 1850s, along with William Hutchison, he made preliminary design plans for the Mechanics Hall, and had the £1384 carpentry contract for the Hall built in 1854.  He was the father of specialty woods merchant E. J. Maxwell who was also a member of MIM, and grandfather of noted Montreal architects Edward and William Maxwell.
• Aaron Philip Hart, the fourth lawyer in the extended Hart and Judah families to be admitted to the Bar in Canada, gave lectures at the MMI in 1829, left in a huff, and was a member again in 1840. He raised a Loyalist militia regiment during the 1837-38 rebellions, then defended the Patriotes in the 1838-39 trials. He owned the horse that won the first running of the Queen’s Plate in Toronto.
• François-Antoine Laroque, born in L’Assomption, educated at Collège de Montréal and in the U.S., became a furtrader and explorer at age 17.  He served in Chasseurs canadiens in the War of 1812 and was imprisoned by the Americans in Cincinnati for six months.  Upon retiring from the fur trade in 1815, he became involved in many aspects of commercial life in Montreal.  He elected Mechanics’ Institution vice-president in 1830.  His son François-Alfred-Chartier Laroque was a founder of the Montreal City & District Savings Bank, and became an MIM life member in 1854.
• John Ostell joined the Mechanics’ Institution in January 1834 at age 21, having just arrived from England.  He was elected to the Committee of Managers in 1835, and served as president in 1845 and 1846. A surveyor and architect, he designed the Customs House (1836), now part of the Pointe-à-Callières museum; McGill Arts Building (1843); Grand Séminaire de Montréal on Sherbrooke Street; and the (old) Court House (1859). Later, he ran a door and sash factory on the Lachine Canal. His son Joseph joined the Mechanics’ Institute at age 13.
• John Lovell, one of the eldest in a large Irish farming family located near Montreal, became a printer’s apprentice and then started a publishing company that still operates-- the oldest family-owned enterprise in Canada. He published books, city directories, textbooks and sheet music. With his brother-in-law John Gibson, an MIM member, he published a journal called The Literary Garland, the first journal in Canada to pay authors for their fiction work. John Lovell was elected to MIM’s Committee of Management in 1840 at the age of 30.
• William Watson arrived from Scotland in 1801 with his parents, siblings and two millstones.  They set up shop as millers near Montreal to take advantage of the Nun’s Island current, and William Watson learned milling at an early age. The fortune he earned enabled his Ogilvie nephews --Alexander Walker, John and William Watson Ogilvie—to build the largest flour milling enterprise in Canada.  William Watson joined MIM in 1840, and his three nephews were also MIM members, Alexander being the most active of the three in the 1850s.
• William Hutchison, son of a Scottish farmer, became a mason, built the imposing Bank of Montreal building designed by John Wells, and was involved with the plans for the Library of Parliament. He joined MIM in 1843, and with Edward Maxwell made the preliminary plans for the Mechanics Hall that was built in 1854.  William Hutchison’s  brother Matthew, also an MIM member, was for a time the flour inspector in Montreal and later formed a milling business with the Ogilvie brothers in Goderich, Ontario.  William’s sons were prominent architect Alexander Cowper and builder John Henry.
• A. C. Hutchison apprenticed as a stonemason with his father, learned architectural drawing at the Mechanics’ Institute starting at age 13, and later taught the course.  In addition to designing or building many of the enduring and graceful structures in Montreal, the young Hutchison brothers were responsible for the design and building of the ice palaces that were highlights of Montreal winter festivals in the late 1800s.

Adapted from an article that originally appeared in the Westmount Independent.

Susan McGuire is the official historian of the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal. You can contact her by email at:
s.f.mcguire AT sympatico DOT ca.

 

Portrait of the Pastor

Henry Esson was guiding force behind the Montreal Mechanics' Institute

 

(From Quebec Heritage News Nov-Dec 2008) 

Click here for full article

BY Susan McGuire
 
In Montreal in 1828, the leaders of the new Mechanics’ Institution envisioned the establishment of classes in such subjects as writing, arithmetic, French, and various aspects of drawing.  These would serve two purposes:  provide a source of education for the young men who were flooding the city and had nowhere to learn except on the job; and keep them out of the pubs.

However, after long hours of work, the young men were not necessarily interested in attending classes—by candlelight.  Employers did not always want to let their young employees leave work early to go to school. Funding was a problem: it was difficult to charge young pupils enough to cover the costs of renting classrooms and paying teachers.  Some teachers were willing to provide instruction gratis, but course continuity was a problem.

Nevertheless, a surprising number of young men did sign up—as young as 13 (including Alexander Cowper Hutchison and John Ostell’s son Joseph)—and maintained their membership in the Mechanics’ Institute over the years.  Some of the teachers, who were also members of the Institute and volunteered their time, included:

• John Cliff, from England, was described in Dr. Daniel Tracey’s anti-English Vindicator in 1830 as “a man of science and much talent in his profession.”  In the 1831 census he is listed as a carpenter, in 1842 as an architect; in the Dictionary of Canadian  Biography he is referred to as an architect.  On December 24, 1833, he was appointed drawing master for the Institute’s first classes, which would start December 30, and be held Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings at 7 pm.
• James Duncan taught drawing at MIM in 1851-52 with  the Rev. J. Hutchinson, and landscape and ornamental drawing in 1854-55 with J. C. Spence. He was a skilled draftsman, but is primarily known as a watercolourist.   Originally from Ireland, by 1830 he was already established in Montreal as a painter, lithographer and teacher of drawing.  Among other schools, he taught at the British & Canadian School for working class children.  He was commissioned by John Samuel McCord to paint views of the city and its environs, and was the artist for Bosworth’s Hochelaga Depicta published in 1839. Some of his drawings, part of the extensive David Winkworth collection in England, have recently been repatriated by Canadian Archives in Ottawa. He was an MIM life member.
• John C. Spence taught landscape and ornamental drawing in 1854-55.  He was—according to Joseph T. Dutton in the Mechanics’ Institute’s minutes— the “son of William Spence, a celebrated sculptor of Liverpool, England.”  Probably  Montreal’s first stained glass decorator, his works include three stained glass windows over the organ loft at the Church of St. John the Evangelist; and three windows over the altar at tiny Holy Trinity Church in Iron Hill. He was on the MIM Committee of Management in the 1850s.

Adapted from an article that originally appeared in the Westmount Independent.

Susan McGuire is the official historian of the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal. You can contact her by email at:
s.f.mcguire AT sympatico DOT ca.

By Susan McGuire

Shortly after the Mechanics’ Institution was formed in 1828, William Satchwell Leney donated an engraved copper plate for “striking off the cards of the Institution.”  In thanks, he was made a “Member for Life.”

How and why he came to Montreal is unclear.  He was born in 1769 in London and, according to Britain’s Dictionary of National Biography, became an engraver accomplished in both line and stipple while studying with Peltro William Tompkins; he engraved several of the series produced in the 1790s by John Boydell for The Shakespeare Gallery.  

William Leney and his wife Sarah immigrated to New York about 1806. They had nine children.  Among other commissions while in New York, he engraved small portraits of notable Americans including George Washington and John Adams. He won a gold medal for some of his works in 1807.
 
The Leney family arrived in Montreal in 1820, and settled on a farm at Longue Pointe on the northeastern tip of Montreal Island. William Leney engraved the first banknotes for the Bank of Montreal. He died in 1831 at age 62 and is buried in Mount Royal Cemetery

His granddaughter Sarah Leney married Alexander Walker Ogilvie, who grew up on a farm near the Leneys, and as a young man joined the Ogilvie milling enterprises. Alexander Ogilvie was able to retire early, and spent many years in public service, including several years active in the Mechanics’ Institute in the 1850s.

Robert A. Sproule was elected to the MMI managing committee in 1830. He had arrived in Montreal from Ireland a few years before, and advertised himself as a miniature painter, drawing master and decorator of window blinds.

In 1830, he had completed a series of six views of Montreal, watercolours, which were engraved on copperplate by William Leney.  A new edition of the prints was made in the 1880s.  The six watercolours are said to make up the most handsome series published in Canada, and “show a maturity achieved in pictorial printmaking during the first half of the 19th century,” according to Spendlove in The Early Face of Canada.  

Robert Sproule and his expanding family moved to Ontario after 1834, where they lived a somewhat peripatetic existence until he died in 1845.

Adapted from an article that originally appeared in the Westmount Independent.

Susan McGuire is the official historian of the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal. You can contact her by email at:
s.f.mcguire AT sympatico DOT ca.

By Susan McGuire

François-Antoine Laroque, elected first vice-president of the Mechanics’ Institution in 1830, had perhaps one of the most exciting lives among the early members of that new organization—at least during the middle years of his life.

He was born in 1784, son of a prosperous fur-trading and commercial family in L’Assomption. He was first sent to Collège de Montréal for his education, then following his father’s early death in 1792, and his mother’s remarriage to a young Scotsman and Loyalist from New York named Hugh Munro, he was sent to school in the U.S. to learn English.

At age 17, he joined the XY Company as a clerk, and soon thereafter joined the North-West Company, at which time his explorations and furtrading were centred from Grand Portage near Winnipeg to Missouri, Montana and Wyoming. He wrote two respected journals, considered of significance in the United States--the Missouri Journal and the Yellowstone Journal--because he was probably the first white man to meet and certainly the first to detail and comment on the surroundings and activities of the native peoples he encountered.

In 1805, Laroque left the west for Montreal. Like several others making the transition from fur trading, he became a commission merchant, and invested in steamboats and railways. He joined other leading furtraders in the Beaver Club, where he became secretary.

He was a captain in the Chasseurs canadiens during the War of 1812, and was imprisoned by the Americans in Cincinnati for six months. He became chief warden of Notre-Dame Church and secretary of its building committee.  He was a director of the Bank of Montreal from 1817-1826, a harbour commissioner, and vice-president of the Montreal Savings Bank.  He was an 1822 charter member of the Montreal Committee for Trade (forerunner of the Board of Trade), a governor of the Montreal General Hospital, a director of Champlain & St. Lawrence Railway, and a trustee of the Lachine Turnpike Road.

Along with Louis-Joseph Papineau and Horatio Gates, F.-A. Laroque was on the board of directors of the British & Canadian School during the 1820s.   A secular, free or low-fee school for English and French working class boys and girls, some of school’s philosophy was carried forward into adult education at the Mechanics’ Institution.

Even with all his community and business activities, he was nevertheless arrested for a short time during the 1837-38 Rebellions, apparently for distributing a newspaper article that had first appeared in London. His commission merchant company, Laroque Bertrand, went bankrupt in 1838.  Three years later, in 1841, after his only son was married, he withdrew from business.   In the early 1850s, he undertook an extended trip to the United States.   He spent his last years in seclusion, from 1855 to 1869, at Hôtel-Dieu in Saint-Hyacinthe.
 
In 1818, he had married Marie-Catherine-Émilie-Cotté, daughter of an important fur baron, Gabriel Cotté.  She died in 1838.  Their only son, François-Alfred-Chartier Laroque, was active in Montreal church affairs, real estate and in businesses including City & District Savings Bank, was a member of the Mechanics’ Institute in the 1840s, and for a time—with his father-in-law Olivier Berthelet--was landlord of the Mechanics’ Institute.

Adapted from an article that originally appeared in the Westmount Independent.

Susan McGuire is the official historian of the Atwater Library of the Mechanics' Institute of Montreal. You can contact her by email at:
s.f.mcguire AT sympatico DOT ca.