McCord Stewart Museum

The McCord Stewart Museum tells the story of Montreal and its people. It was founded in 1921 by David Ross McCord, built around his family's collection, and opened on 13 October that year in the former McGill Union building designed by Percy Erskine Nobbs. It stands at 690 Sherbrooke Street West, downtown.

The collections are large and varied. The museum describes six collections holding 3.2 million images, objects, documents and works of art, covering archives, documentary art, dress, fashion and textiles, Indigenous cultures, material culture and photography. The Notman Photographic Archives alone contain more than 400,000 images, including about 200,000 glass negatives, mostly from 1840 to 1935, which record Montreal and Canada as they grew.

In 2021 the Stewart Museum on Saint Helen's Island closed, and about 27,000 of its artefacts, many relating to New France and the European presence in North America, joined the McCord collection. The museum took its current name on 31 August 2022. It has occupied its Sherbrooke Street site since 1971, became independent of McGill University in 1988 and reopened in 1992 after an expansion.

Look out for the textiles. The costume, fashion and textiles collection holds about 27,000 garments and accessories, including what is described as the oldest known quilt in North America, dated 1726, and the Indigenous cultures collection has about 16,000 objects. Outside, Pierre Granche's sculpture Totem urbain, histoire en dentelle stands on the Victoria Street pavement.

Exhibitions change regularly, so the visit is different each time. At the time of writing the programme included Askohteskanohwe by the artist Carrie Allison and an exhibition titled Indigenous Voices of Today. The ground floor is being renovated, so expect some changes to the layout during your visit.

It is a manageable museum for a couple of hours and suits anyone curious about everyday life in the city, fashion history or historic photography. It also gives useful context before a walk through Old Montreal or along Sherbrooke Street. A yearly membership, with unlimited visits, is worth considering if you are staying a while or visiting several times.

Opening hours are published on the museum's website and are worth checking before you set out. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a short walk west along Sherbrooke Street, and the lower slopes of Mount Royal are within walking distance.