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In 1877, Joseph-Celestin Carrier, a French scholar, entered the Collège
to teach sciences, mathematics, French, English and philosophy. However,
he quickly began collecting all kinds of curiosities: religious relics,
items from the First Nations' communities, rocks, plants, naturalized
animals, papal coins, a mosaic from Jerusalem, a bit of mortar from the
Collège de Saint-Laurent, and even some of the cloth that covered
the foot of Cordelia Viau's gallows! Overall, he was able to gather a
truly encyclopaedic Victorian-style collection.
In 1896, Carrier convinced the Collège to build an octagonal tower
to house his 80,000 findings! It was hailed as one of Canada's leading
natural science museums. From this initially gigantic collection, 500
objects have survived and remain in our collections.
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