Jean-Marie Gauvreau, first Canadian graduate of the famous École Boulle in Paris, was asked to organize a cabinet making course at the École Technique de Montréal in 1930. He was dismayed by what he discovered in Quebec. What had happened to all the traditional skills?

Driven by Gauvreau's initiative, the École technique de Montréal soon became the École du meuble de Montréal in 1935. Playing an essential role in the emergence of Quebec's artistic avant-garde movements, the school also recognized the important knowledge left to us by the past centuries' masters. Numerous endorsers of the famous Refus Global were associated with the École du meuble, such as Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Madeleine Arbour.

Over the years, Jean-Marie Gauvreau amassed a huge collection of objects of art and furniture. In order to provide students with reference works, he gathered his collection and founded the Musée de meubles anciens et d'objets d'art at the École du meuble in 1935.

In 1962, the Department of Cultural Affairs seconded curator Robert-Lionel Séguin to the museum and Gauvreau's 3-D library became the best of its kind in Quebec.

The École du meuble's collection was deposited at the Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec under the Minister of Education's authorization in 1985. Twenty years later, the collection was officially given to the museum.