McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Cecile Masson Collection
Collection
1 album (38 leaves) : photographs (black and white) ; 31 x 26 cm
2 photographs : black and white ; 22.5 x 16.5 cm and smaller
Cecelia Marie Helene Cecile Masson Globensky, neé Burroughs, was born on September 15, 1859, in Quebec City, Quebec, daughter of John Henry Ross Burroughs (1824-1904), a chief clerk of the Quebec Superior Court, and Léda Marie LaRue (1824–1902).
In 1883, she married Louis-Rodrigue Masson (1833-1903), a Canadian lawyer, militia officer, a Member of Parliament for Terrebonne, Quebec, and the fifth Lieutenant Governor of Quebec. They had three children. In 1911, she remarried Léon Alphonse Globensky (1840–1913), a real estate broker for Globensky and Hill Jones Ltée, Montreal, and a founder of Montreal's first French-language weekly newspaper, Les Nouvelles (1894).
She died on December 1, 1943, in Ottawa, Ontario, and is buried in Terrebonne, Quebec.
Collection consists chiefly of an album of photographs and clippings compiled by Cecile (Burroughs) Masson. Captions date the photographs to between 1915 and 1940, with one earlier photograph from 1883 that depicts Cecile and Rodrigue Masson's wedding. Many of the personal photographs depict members of the Masson family taken in Terrebonne, Quebec (where the Masson family home was located), in Ottawa, and during travels to Italy, London, the south of France. There are 28 leaves of full page plates of travel photographs from France, Italy, and Africa. Also included in the album are postcards and newspaper clippings. One series of postcards depicts architecture in Terrebonne, Quebec. The clippings include a letter to the editor written by L. R. Masson (Mrs. L. A. Globensky) and published in the Montreal Star, 1939. Other clippings relate to the S-Plan, a bombing campaign by the Ireland Republic Army, in 1939, as well as the British royal family. The album is half bound in faux black morocco and pebbled cloth boards with the initials C. M. stamped in gilt on the front cover. A caption at the head of the second leaf reads "This album is for mother from Grace", with "mother" crossed out. An inscription on the first leaf reads "This is for my dear daughter Cecile. Many happy memories of the past - affectionately from Mother." The collection also includes two loose black and white photograph portraits, one of which is inscribed to Aunt Cecile.
Some photographs are faded.
Purchased from Patrick McGahern Books with the support of Professor H. Deep Saini, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, in honour of Professor Yves Beauchamp's service as Vice-Principal (Administration and Finance), June 2023.
Also described in McGill's library catalogue.
Cecile Masson was the wife of Louis Rodrigue Masson, who extensively collected records related to the North West Company and Canadian fur trade.