McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
James Edward Gill Fonds
Fonds
60 cm of textual records and photographs
Geologist and mining consultant J.E. Gill was born in British Columbia. He received his B.Sc. in mining engineering from McGill in 1921 and his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1925. In 1929 he joined the teaching staff of the Department of Geology; in 1957 he was named Dawson Professor of Geology, and he retired in 1969 as Emeritus Professor. Besides teaching, Gill consulted for the firm of W.F. James on mining problems, and served as an advisor to federal and provincial mining ministries. His special field of research was gold and he was instrumental in discovering deposits in Labrador, Québec, and Peru. An outcome of his double interest in teaching and mining discoveries was the Master's programme in mineral exploration which he organized at McGill.
The bulk of Gill's papers concern his consulting work for the mining industry and for government. Only two small files relate to his teaching career. Gill's work as mining consultant is documented by 124 maps, 48 designed by Gill himself, showing structural geology of various regions in eastern Canada, and mineral deposits of gold, iron, zinc and molybdenite, not only in Canada, but also in the Malartic gold fields in Peru (1929-1968). The papers also contain his report on iron ore in Labrador (1929) and two reports by W.F. James and J.E. Gill to the Newfoundland government, assessing prospects for gold in the Rainbow and Kayak Concessions, Labrador (1933), areas prospected by R.B. D'Aigle, see his papers, Section IX: Professions And Trades. IX). Three field notebooks record summer research expeditions (1935, 1947-1948). Three reports by Peter Eakins, a former student of Gill, describe the Malartic mine (1951, 1955-1956); there is also a report by Eakins on the Wasa Lake Goldfield (1950), and one by J.B. Gilliatt on the Wabana Iron Mines (1949). Gill also raised a file of correspondence and reports on Newfoundland mineral resources (ca 1955-1969). Finally, there are two boxes of petrographic slides, one with laboratory reports, a box of mineral samples collected for the Québec Ministry of Mines, and 4 photographs of mining concerns with which Gill was involved. His teaching activities are reflected by a file of plans, reports and memoranda on the organization of the Geology Department Map Library (1959-1969) and an outline with some draft chapters of a student's thesis (1969).
Originals, printed materials, photographs