MP-0000.1452.1 | View from Mount Royal, Montreal, QC, about 1870
View from Mount Royal, Montreal, QC, about 1870
Alexander Henderson
About 1870, 19th century
Silver salts on paper mounted on card - Albumen process
23.5 x 33.5 cm
Gift of Miss E. Dorothy Benson
MP-0000.1452.1
© McCord Museum
Description
Keywords: Cityscape (3948) , Figure (1339) , Figure (1339) , Photograph (77678) , view (1386)
Keys to History
A Big City
After 1850 Montreal increasingly took on the characteristics of a big city. Its population, which was only 58,000 in 1852, had grown to over 267,000 by 1901; and if the suburbs were included, the figure reached almost 325,000. This was a significant change in magnitude.
Growth of this kind did not occur at a constant rate. After a sharp jump in the 1850s, followed by a slowdown in the next two decades, it soared in the early 1880s and then again at the very end of the century.
Around 1850 immigration was still strong, owing to the huge waves of Irish immigrants, which were beginning to dry up, however. The rural exodus took over as a source of growth for the Montreal population. In the last decades of the 19th century, thousands of people left the countryside, which had little to offer them, in the hopes of improving their lot. English-speaking Canadians from the Eastern Townships, Ontario and the Maritimes, but especially large numbers of French-speaking Quebeckers arrived in Montreal.
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What
The picture shows the main part of urban Montreal around 1870. In the distance, the two towers of Notre Dame Church dominate the skyline. In the foreground, the residential neighbourhood of St. Antoine, which had recently become popular with wealthy Montrealers, can be seen.
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Where
The photograph was taken from the top of Mount Royal, a hill 230 m high. Painters and photographers were particularly fond of this vantage point, which provided a marvellous panorama of the city. The top of Mount Royal would not become a public park until a few years later, in 1874.
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When
Three years after Confederation, the new nation called Canada was already one of the largest countries in the world. Montreal was its economic hub.
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Who
By 1871 Montreal had a population of 107,225, with 53% being of French ancestry, 45% of British ancestry and only 2% of other origins.
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