The Musée des Augustines (museum of the Augustinian sisters) was started in 1958 to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the foundation of Quebec City. Its location is redolent of history and its rich collection of artifacts is the heritage of three and a half centuries of humanitarian effort.The collection includes works of art, ethnological artifacts, relics of the earliest days of New France, and tokens from the history of this extraordinary order of hospitallers, the very first of the missionary orders. The objects on exhibition remind us of how constant the bonds have been between the Augustines and the people of Quebec ever since the hospital was founded in 1639.

Louis XIII, Louis XIV and Louis XV furniture from France, amidst coats of arms and royal portraits.

Jean Talon (1625-1694)

This little gem of a museum with a surprisingly large collection presents a range of artifacts from various periods. The French regime is of course well represented, since the sisters laboured under it for more than a hundred and twenty years. The exhibits are divided into distinct areas according to theme. The first of them is the ‘royal’ one, with Louis XIII, Louis XIV and Louis XV objects and furniture, and with portraits of the monarchs, of the Duchess of Aiguillon (founding benefactress of the order’s Quebec house) and of the famous intendant (royal superindendent) Jean Talon. You will also find there antique gold and silver, leather caskets, etc.

Leather case bearing the monogram of Louis XV and used by the king's messengers.

The second area is devoted to the journeyings of the three founding sisters. In particular there is the famous chest with three keys, a symbol of the religious foundation, which they brought with them on their ocean crossing in 1639. Pictures illustrate them sailing from Dieppe (in northern France) and arriving at Quebec wearing the habit of the period, and there is a model of their original hospital.

Cherrywood chest brought from France by the three founding nuns in 1639.

The following section displays a range of Canadian furniture, a proof of our ancestors’ skill at carpentry and cabinet making. A small room has been furnished to show what a nun’s cell was like in the eighteenth century. Part of the refectory has been reproduced with pulpit, bench, table and pewter tableware, and alongside it a kitchen of olden times with its set of copper pots and utensils.

A particularly fine display case is the one where visitors can admire an outstanding collection of altar frontals embroidered by the nuns. Their varied artistic talents were not confined to embroidery; they also made wax figurines of the Infant Jesus, artificial flowers and even very detailed models. In addition, excellent paintings of religious scenes and portraits by artists of the European and Canadian schools from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries are placed here and there throughout the museum.

Eighteenth-century set of copper kitchen utensils

Last but not least there are the artifacts of the Augustines’ own vocation, the care of the sick. In that connection there is a permanent exhibition of medical instruments of all periods from the seventeenth century onwards. This ‘antiquarian’s cabinet’ of the tools of the nursing profession helps bring to life for us the beginnings of medicine in our country.

Pharmacist's cabinet

Fortunately the nuns were able to preserve an astonishing collection of surgical, ENT and dental instruments, and an especially rich assemblage of pharmacy items. The truth is, the Augustines were not only nurses but also female apothecaries, as is demonstrated by the many artifacts connected with the dispensing of medicines. Pill machines, pestles and mortars, scalpels and masks for administering anaesthetic all reveal the kind of health care which our forefathers knew.

Next:    The Augustines, nursing missionaries to the New World