This series is significant from a business and political perspective, documenting Arthur Schmon's direction of the company's activities in Quebec (and later in all of Canada) from 1929 to 1960. The textual records describe the beginnings of the company, which built paper mills and villages at Shelter Bay (later Port Cartier 100 miles east of Baie Comeau), Franquelin (15 miles east of Baie Comeau), Baie Comeau, and Thorold in Ontario. In particular, this series shows the development of a pioneer paper industry and its operations in the virgin forest of the Lower North Shore of the St. Lawrence River; and how the company assured a long term supply of pulpwood for the Tribune Company's newspapers by acquiring timber rights and establishing a ground wood pulp and paper mill of 100 tons capacity at Baie Comeau.
The photographic material constitutes a large and important group of industrially related images. They were created by the company primarily for its own internal purposes : as identification documentation on timber limits, equipment, plant, town sites (Baie Comeau, Thorold), construction sites (Baie Comeau, Manicouagan) and for the company's magazine, the Observation Post. The directors of the company's magazine seem to have commissioned a large number of photographs. Throughout the series, handwritten notations corresponding to page numbers in the Observation Post are often found on the reverse of prints. This is also visible by a sentence or two written on a piece of paper glued to on reverse of the prints describing the photographs, which is often the text used with photographs in the pages of the magazine.
Photographs cover the period from the Company's creation prior to the first World War in 1912 and continue until the 1990s, although material before the 1920s and after the 1970s is scarce. The photographs contains extensive documentation on developing all of these areas of Thorold, but most specifically Baie Comeau. The timber rights and limits were the basic planning documents upon which the company based future development. Acquisition of hydro-electricity rights was the first step towards the actual building of the paper mill and town. Development began with the construction of a power dam on Outardes River in 1926. This was followed by negotiations with the federal government toward the building of a wharf at Baie Comeau in 1929 by the government. Arthur Schmon handled relations with all of the Quebec and federal politicians (and their respective government departments) involved in the development of the Lower North Shore. The onset of the Depression, however, halted this work. By 1934, the North American economy had recovered to the point where The Tribune Company's newspapers were beginning to require more paper than the Thorold mill could deliver or the company could purchase at advantageous rates. Planning for the development of Baie Comeau was restarted in 1935. Because it was located in the wilderness of the Lower North Shore, the company had to build a complete town. (Baie Comeau was not the first town built by the company, after the First World War it had established Shelter Bay, later Port Cartier, to service its timber limits on the Rivière-aux-Rochers). All aspects of home construction were considered, from heating the houses to financing ownership, the cost of housing, and house designs; considerable effort was put into planning the types of homes to be built and public facilities. The series reveals that because of Baie Comeau's isolation, the company also provided facilities for medical care including the building of a small hospital. Special attention was also devoted to the construction and furnishing of a grand manor house for Colonel McCormick and a "staff house" to serve as a private hotel for visiting company officials. It also documents the company's relations with the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy for the construction of a church and the establishment of new diocese in Hauterive, five miles west of Baie Comeau.
The cartographic records, technical and architectural drawings complement the series of correspondence produced by Arthur Schmon. Arthur Schmon's correspondence deals with all subjects associated with the development of the company's on the Quebec North Shore and in Thorold. Some records were extracted from textual records files for preservation purpose. The provenance of each records is written on the large folder.
