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David M. Stuart Museum
The Fort de I'lle Sainte-Helene
is a historic fort on Saint Helen's Island that is part of Montreal,
Canada and was built during the early 1820s as the arsenal in a
defensive chain of forts that were constructed to protect the city
and country from the threat of American invasion. It is not heavily
fortified, but did serve an important part as the main artillery
depot for all the forts in the western parts of Canada. These
included the forts known as Fort Henry and Fort Lennox. It is made
of red stone that is a breccia quarried on the island that sits in
the St. Lawrence River between the island of Montreal and the south
shore of the river. When the British army left the fort in ruins, it
would become part of the city of Montreal and then, in the 1930s, it
would be renovated as part of the job creation project that occurred
during the Great Depression. In WWII, it was used for an internment
camp for the Italian Canadians. In the summer months, it is used to
house two reconstituted 18th century regiments, Les Compagnies
Fracnches de la Marine and the Olde 78th Fraser Highlanders.
Presently, it also the home of the David M. Stuart Museum, that
started in 1955 to collect, preserve and display the many historical
relics from the country's colonial past, especially that of New
France. The collection includes artifacts that date from the 16th
century to the 19th century and is open year round. The museum,
which is located inside the garrison, showcases a permanent display
and a yearly one, mainly open during the spring. In the summer, the
museum is host to the reconstituted regiments that perform every day
with military maneuvers. Every day at noon, a gun salute sounds off
in a tradition that has gone on since the British troops stationed
here did it to let everyone in hearing distance that it was noon. It
would signal solar time and is continued today by museum staff
dressed in regimental dress of the Royal Artillery. They set up an
encampment by the parade grounds to simulate the 18th century
colonial life in the new country and bread is baked in wood-fired
ovens each day as well as children's crafts and games are set up to
give visitors a hands-on idea of what life was like in those days.
The museum was present at the 1967 World's Fair and associated with
the reconstruction of the Grande Hermine, one of the ships that
brought Jacques Cartier here to discover the nation. By 1971, the
museum would fill the fort with collections so diversified that it
contained domestic objects, old maps, scientific instruments,
besides the military and maritime collections. In 1974, thanks to
the MacDonald Stewart Foundation, the museum was able to hire
fulltime professionals and open to the public all year long. At the
end of the decade, it became known as the Museum at St. Helen's
Island and in 1984, it supervised the installation of the museum at
the Manoir de Limoeleu in St. Malo, France, where Jacques Cartier
was born. In 1985, when the museum launched its first full scale
temporary display, "The Discovery of the New World: Mapmakers and
Cosmographers, the museum had been renamed the David M. Stewart
Museum in honor of its founder and main benefactor, who had passed
on the year before.
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