McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Regional Series
Series
4.5 m of photographs and textual documents
The Canada Cement Company was incorporated in 1909 by Max Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook), who merged eleven cement companies in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta. For most of the period documented by this photographic collection, it was the largest cement company in Canada headquartered in Montreal. Using the Portland system of cement production, the Company expanded quickly until the Depression. Recovering in the late 1940s, the Company enlarged and modernized its Montreal East Plant, Plant No. 1 located in Pointe-aux-Trembles. By 1954 this plant with its heavily-bedded argillaceous limestone quarry was producing 30 percent of Canadian cement. The Company maintained other plants in Hull, Quebec; Port Colborne and Belleville, Ontario; Fort Whyte, Manitoba; and Exshaw, Alberta, as well as other various operations. In the later years, the Company became Canada Cement Lafarge and is now part of an international cement enterprise.
The Regional Series includes progress and "as finished" photographs of structures built across the country by Canada Cement. There are often up to 20 different photos per project, showing various details and phases. The majority date from 1940 to 1980, with some from 1920 to 1940. Identifications are on the photographs or on the envelopes containing them. Negatives, information sheets, and correspondence are included occasionally. The photographs document approximately the same range of projects as in the Type of Building series, such as apartment buildings, dams, motels, schools, etc. (This series was called the "Black and White" series by the Company administration).
Arranged by region (2 runs, Atlantic to Pacific Regions),
subdivided, alphabetically, by type of building.