The North Shore Historical Society

2, Place La Salle
Baie-Comeau, QC

For important reasons, Alice Lane was unable to attend the first meeting of the North Shore Historical Society, but her absence was excused. The meeting was held on May 16, 1947, at the Baie-Comeau Community Centre library. Ms. Lane was one of a handful of citizens willing to lay the foundations for a historical society whose primary goal would be to document the history of the North Shore.

Due to the initiative of Bishop René Bélanger, the birth of the Historical Society marks a further step towards the cultural emancipation of the North Shore. It brings together prestigious personalities around this noble cause, including Paul Provencher, a forestry engineer by trade, but also a photographer, filmmaker, explorer and author of several books including Le dernier des coureurs des bois, published by Éditions de l’homme.

In 2022, the Historical Society celebrated its 75th anniversary. It has come a long way since its creation, both in spreading the history of the North Shore, promoting historic sites, building more than 250 archival collections, collecting nearly 300,000 photographs and laying the foundations for a museum by building a collection of more than 2,000 objects closely linked to the magnificent and prodigious history of the North Shore.

While they held their first meetings on the stage of the basement of Ste-Amélie Church, where the Petit Théâtre de Baie-Comeau shone in all its glory, the followers of the Historical Society had to adapt to many locations throughout the existence of their organization. Today, the Historical Society’s archives center is housed in the Maison du patrimoine Napoléon-Alexandre-Comeau in Baie-Comeau.

Discover the story of this guardian of our collective memory

Author : Raphaël Hovington