Fonds consists of correspondence dealing with various aspects of the iron and steel industry, 1900-1941; printed material relating to the activities of the Drummond family, iron production, imperial unity, miscellaneous topics, Canada's iron industry and the Radnor Forges, n.d., 1892-1968, 8 cm; and scrapbooks dealing with W.H. Drummond, politics, religion and farming, n.d., 1892-1949, 2 cm.
The fonds also contains photographs, 1872-1912, showing the mining and iron founding facilities of the Drummond family in Nova Scotia and Ontario. Many of the photographs are from the period 1900-1910.
Drummond (family) : The Drummond family, iron manufacturers, included four prominent brothers: Dr. William Henry Drummond, George E. Drummond, Thomas J. Drummond and John J. Drummond. W.H. Drummond, born in Ireland in 1854, emigrated with his family to Canada in 1866. Following his education, he began a practise as a physician, but his reputation was made as a poet of French-Canadian life, having written such famous poems as "The Habitant", "Johnnie Courteau" and "The Voyageur". He died in Cobalt, Ontario in 1907.
George Edward Drummond was born in 1858 and educated in Montreal. In 1881 he and James T. McCall, a Scottish immigrant, started the firm of Drummond, McCall and Company, Limited which imported British and foreign heavy iron and steel. They were joined by two Drummond brothers, Thomas J. (born 1860), and John J., and promptly became the leading iron importers in Canada. After 1888, as a result of the National Policy, they began manufacturing iron, and founded the Canada Iron Furnace Company, Montreal Pipe Fitting Company, Canadian Iron and Foundry Company, Londonderry, (N.S.), Iron and Mining Company and Radnor Water Company. They also established foundries in Radnor, Quebec and Midland, Ont. These enterprises were merged in 1908 into the Canada Iron Corporation.
