Louis-Adolphe Huguet-Latour (1812-1904) is one of the few lay people whose archives are held by the AJC. Bequeathed to Collège Sainte-Marie on his death, many of his documents have become part of the largest collection held by the AJC—the Collection des Archives du Collège Sainte-Marie. This practice was common among friends of the Jesuits, educated men who moved in the same circles. This article looks at the contents of his personal fonds, acquired a few decades later.
In 1863, Louis-Adolphe Huguet-Latour published the first edition of the Ville-Marie Directory: the origin, utility, and progress of Montreal’s Catholic Institutions [Annuaire de Ville-Marie : origine, utilité et progrès des institutions catholiques de Montréal]. From the very first pages, he emphasized the importance he attaches to the meticulous work of recording information to preserve and build the memory of societies:
“The gaps that we will inevitably be obliged to leave in our plan will perhaps show how important it is for each parish, each mission, each college or community, each society and even, if you like, each respectable family, to have a distinct book, separate from the accounting registers, in which to record, at the appropriate time, everything that is historically linked and, from its point of view, to each body thus constituted. What beautiful pages we would have today, with this method, on the intimate history of Canada!”
Couverture de L’Annuaire de Ville-Marie, Bibliothèque des Jésuites au Canada.
Born to a bourgeois Montreal family in 1812, Huguet-Latour became a notary in 1847. In the 1850s, he joined the Montreal militia, as his father—also a notary—had done before him.
At the same time, he was involved in several cultural societies, including the Temperance Society of the Diocese of Montreal. His personal involvement was part of a wider social phenomenon that began to gain momentum in the late 1840s, with the movement initiated by Father Charles Chiniquy. Huguet-Latour was also involved in the Montreal Historical Society, founded in 1858 by Jacques Viger, and became its first librarian.
Indeed, it was his interest in Canadian history and his desire to preserve its memory that seems to have truly marked Huguet-Latour’s life. The AJC holds an archival fonds that bears witness to his work collecting data on a wide variety of subjects, from observations on Montreal’s meteorology to an inventory of rare books from the Collège de Montréal, as well as lists of notaries, attorneys, surgeons…
Graph of monthly temperatures in Montreal between 1849 and 1852. GLC BO-81.2.7.1.9.
The fonds also contains documents that do not always concern him directly, but which demonstrate his interest in preserving historical witnesses. Indeed, his historical notes on the history of Lower Canada undoubtedly occupy the most space in this collection. Some of these he used to write his Annuaire de Ville-Marie. He also left the Jesuits a relic and two documents signed by Marguerite Bourgeoys.
Chronological list of the introduction of various tree species into Europe, middle of the 19th century. GLC BO-81.2.5.1.7.
His archival fonds also includes extensive correspondence with various scientific institutes, testifying to his interest in the creation of rich repositories of knowledge. For several decades, Huguet-Latour’s mission was to help these institutions build up their libraries and include writings on Canadian history, by sending them a number of books and brochures.
External sources
Brault, J.-R. 1993. La société historique de Montréal 1858-1993 [The Montreal Historical Society 1858-1993]. Cap-au-diamants 34 : 55.
Saint-Pierre, J. 2002. Le mouvement de la tempérance [The temperance movement]. Encyclobec.
