Collection search - Grosse Isle Quarantine Station [textual record]

Record information – Brief
1
Grosse Isle Quarantine Station [textual record]

Hierarchical level:

Series

Date:

1833-1839

Reference:

R1191-16-4-E, RG42-A-3

Type of material:

Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

134551

Context of this record:

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Department of Marine fonds

Grosse Isle Quarantine Station
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Record information – Details

Series includes:

3027 lower level description(s)
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Date(s):

1833-1839

Bilingual equivalent:

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Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

1.5 m of textual records

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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Series consists of records created and/or maintained by the Grosse Isle Quarantine Station. The series includes the following records: passports issued by the Visiting Officer of the Quarantine Station to masters of vessels "in a fit state to proceed to Quebec", 1834 (Vols. 9-10); drafts of letters, 1836, and letterbook, 1836-1839, of the Civil Secretary relating to the Quarantine Station (Vol. 10); letters, 1837-1838, from the Inspecting Physician and the Medical Superintendent to the Commandant as well as instructions for the staff of the Quarantine Station (Vols. 10-11); register of deaths at the Quarantine Station, 1834-1835 (Vol. 11); list of river vessels receiving certificates of discharge from quarantine, 1834-1835 (Vols. 12-17); weekly returns of the sick in hospital, 1834-1839 (Vol. 11); position of vessels coming up the St. Lawrence, 1833-1834; boarding reports, 1833-1838; completed questionnaires for vessels performing quarantine, 1833-1835 (Vols. 12-22).

Additional name(s):

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Lower Canada. Grosse Isle Quarantine Station

Biography/Administrative history:

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Lower Canada. Grosse Isle Quarantine Station : The quarantine station on Grosse Ile, an island located in the middle of the St. Lawrence river, 48 km downstream from Québec, was established by colonial authorities in1832, in response to reports that new immigrants with various contagious diseases. With cholera outbreaks in 1832 and1834, and a deadly typhus epidemic in 1847-1848, thousands of new immigrants were quarantined on the island, with thousands eventually perishing. The victims of the latter epidemic were mainly Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine. This period of virulent epidemics came to an end only after another outbreak of cholera in 1854.

At the time of Confederation in 1867, the Canadian government formulated a comprehensive policy on immigration and settlement, requiring the establishment of a reliable, efficient quarantine station. Dr. Frederick Montizambert, was in charge of establishing modern facilities at the Grosse Ile quarantine station, where he acted as medical superintendent from 1869 to 1899. As fewer people immigrated to Canada as a result of the First World War (1914-1918) and the Great Depression (1930s), and knowledge of microbiology and the treatment of contagious diseases was advanced, the hospital on Grosse Ile was reduced to treating minor childhood infections such as diphtheria, chicken pox and measles. New international health agreements stated that people infected with these diseases no longer had to be quarantined and serious infections such as cholera, typhus and smallpox could be successfully treated at the Parc Savard Hospital in Quebec, founded in 1907. The quarantine station on Grosse Ile was closed in 1937. Quarantine And Public Health: The Changing Role of Grosse Ile, by André Sévigny, Historian, September 1995, see Parks Canada website 1031

Finding aid:

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(Paper) Finding aid 42-1 is a typed file list. 42-1

Additional information:

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Source of title:

Title is based on the contents of the series.

Exhibitions note:

Exhibition Title: Treasured Memories 5: A National Archives of Canada Exhibition. Curator: Michel Anne Crawley, National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; 2001.01.22 - 2001.11.12 (RG42 - vol. 17 - file 13 #340 - May 29, 1832)

Accruals:

No further accruals are expected.

Source:

Government

Former archival reference no.:

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RG42-A-3
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Conditions of access:

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Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Volume [RG42] 9--17

[Consultation 90 Open]

Terms of use:

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