George-Émile Marquis and Public Libraries in Quebec before 1945

Nos bibliothèques publiques, by Georges-Émile Marquis. Québec: Éditions du Terroir, 1925, 16 p., illus.
Plaidoyer pour les bibliothèques publiques, by Georges-Émile Marquis. Montréal: L’Oeuvre des tracts, 1946, 16 p.

G-É Marquis, c. 1930s

In 1890, the government of Quebec passed a statute, the Municipal Aid to Public Libraries (Chapter 34), authorizing municipalities to approve bylaws to “aid, in conformity with the laws governing them, the establishment and maintenance of free public libraries in their municipalities or in adjoining municipalities.” This law also stipulated similar permissive assistance for library associations and mechanics’ institutes. The city of Westmount, on the island of Montreal, was the first to create a municipal library under this statute in 1899. Yet, the vast majority of communities in Quebec continued to be served by bibliothèques paroissiales, that is, small local collections created and managed by the Catholic Church for use by parishioners since the mid-19th century.

 

Ecclesiastical resistance to the establishment of secularized municipal public libraries remained strong, even in Quebec’s urban centre, Montreal, where the city council, forced to turn down a $150,000 Carnegie promised grant made in 1901, eventually erected a public library. The Bibliothèque de la Ville de Montréal, a beautiful, classic Beaux-Arts style building, became the city’s central public library after its official opening in May 1917. However, its holdings were deficient for a city of more than 600,000, borrowing was subject to a $3 to $6 deposit, and French-language publications were lacking. By the mid-1920s, only small steps had been taken toward municipal tax-supported public libraries in Quebec. There were few writers or journalists publishing articles in newspapers, journals, or monographs advocating the adoption of this type of library which was making greater strides in English-speaking countries.

 

One such author, largely ignored in Canadian public library histories, was Georges-Émile Marquis, who was born in Saint-Pierre-de-Montmagny in 1878. He became a teacher after graduating from the Laval Normal School in 1896; then, he taught schoolchildren for a short time before becoming a school inspector after 1905. A few years later, he was appointed Chief Statistician of the Quebec Bureau of Statistics in 1914. Marquis had an eclectic range of interests spanning history, economics, travel, the presidency of the Canadian Club at Quebec City, and the honorary rank of colonel in the Lévis Regiment. As a member of the Société des Auteurs Canadiens and the Société des Arts, Sciences et Lettres, he was intent on publishing his lectures and issuing small pamphlets: one such special focus was the library situation in Quebec. This attentiveness became a vocation, when, in 1934, he was appointed as Director of the Library of the Legislator, a position he held in Quebec City until his retirement in 1952.

 

G.É. Marquis and Nos bibliothèques publiques, 1925

 

Marquis’ first library publication, Nos bibliothèques publiques, drew on his knowledge of general statistics for all types of libraries collected by the provincial government as well as his practical experience as an inspector of school libraries. His booklet reprinted his speech to the French section of the Canadian Authors Association held at the Château Frontenac, Quebec City, on May 4, 1925, in advance of the Book Week held across the province. Marquis, an entertaining and informative speaker, demonstrated a conversational style and interest in book learning, libraries, and the notion of cultural progress in Quebec. Although he addressed all types of libraries, it was clear throughout his talk that he interpreted ‘public library’ in a broad sense to include municipalities, societies, schools, and parish libraries. Drawing on statistics for 1924 tabulated by the Bureau, he stated there were 1,899 public libraries with holdings of 3,853,815 volumes and pamphlets in the province—the vast majority of which were school libraries. There were 225 parish libraries and just a handful, 30, designated as public libraries (p. 12). By comparison, Marquis used comparative figures from the Ontario Department of Education to calculate that Quebec’s neighbour held 3,315,346 volumes in 466 public libraries (free and association) and 5,645 school libraries, for a total of 6,111 libraries. Marquis suggested his comparison might give pause for consideration because, under Ontario legislation there were 195 free public libraries supported by municipal taxation serving more than 1,500,000 people, i.e. about half the provincial population.

For the most part, in his opening section (pp. 3–7), Marquis provided a reliable account of the growth of private, public, and semi-public libraries from the period of New France to the early 20th century. Major libraries were mainly in Montreal and Quebec City where there were leading figures in religious, educational, or commercial fields. Surprisingly, he does not mention the well-known exploits of Alexandre Vattemare in the early 1840s to establish book exchanges, a program that received much attention at the time. Marquis does highlight the historiography of library related contributions by Eugène Rouillard, Pierre-Georges Roy, Édouard-Zotique Massicotte, Aegidius Fauteux, and the neglected history of Frederick C. Wurtele on the valuable library (still active today) of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec. A second section (pp. 7–11) summarizes the development of printing, publishing, and book collecting beginning with the Gazette de Québec in 1764. One notable collection, the library of Philéas Gagnon, 8,000 volumes, was purchased for $31,000 and became the property of the Montreal Municipal Library in 1910. The entire collection was a prominent feature of the new Beaux-Arts library opened on Sherbrooke Street East.

The final two sections of Nos bibliothèques publiques provide Marquis’ knowledgeable statistical summary, followed by a concluding part (pp. 14–16) providing some optimism for future progress. He notes current provincial efforts to fund Canadian books for Quebec schools, the efforts of journalists and editors of popular newspapers and periodicals to supply reading for the public and indirectly to promote libraries. He closes by observing that private initiatives strengthened by public assistance can improve present conditions and develop an abundant source of notable Canadian books that would contribute to “les nombreux chefs-d’oeuvre de la littérature française.”

G.-É. Marquis and a Plea for Public Libraries in Quebec, 1946

 

Two decades later, in 1946, Marquis expanded the theme of public libraries more directly. This pamphlet is more polished and displays greater knowledge of librarianship that he gained after a decade in his office as Librarian of the Legislative Library. In his opening, he reaffirmed his life-long love of books, “Sans livres, que ferions-nous pour nous cultiver ou nous évader? me suis-je souventes fois demandé, et c’est pourquoi je m’apitoie sur le sort des populations qui en sont privées.” [Without books, what would we do to cultivate ourselves or to escape? I have often asked myself, and that is why I am sorry for the populations deprived of them.] To bolster his case for the universality of public library development beyond Anglo-American librarianship, Marquis cites an unusual source neglected throughout North America: the League of Nations International Institute of Intellectual Cooperation, which mainly operated from Paris from 1922 to 1946. In 1937, this committee published Mission sociale et intellectuelle des Bibliothèques populaires; Son organisation, ses moyens d'actions that went on record asserting,

Qu’il s’gisse de l'éducation des jeunes, des adultes et de l'auto-éducation, de procurer un simple délassement de l'esprit, d’enseigner, de renseigner, de former ou de distraire, toujours la bibliothèque populaire offre ses ressources, et sa responsabilité s’en augmente d’autant. [Whether or not it is education for young people, adults, and self-education, providing a simple relaxation for the mind, teaching, informing, training, or entertaining, the public library always offers its resources, and its responsibility increases accordingly (p. 5).]

This early mission statement still rings true in 2025. Marquis also credits Andrew Carnegie’s oft-quoted belief that libraries exist to help those who help themselves as well as Jules Ferry, a French statesman and philosopher, who believed that libraries were a vital asset in education. Further, Marquis, employing a much narrower conception of a ‘public library’ than he relied on in 1926, stated there were only six libraries for predominantly English-speaking readers and four serving French-speaking readers (pp. 2–3), admittedly an unpleasant truth. However, he points to positive changing attitudes to public library development pp. 8–9):

• the formation of l’Association des Bibliothécaires catholiques in 1943 and its call for a reorganization of libraries across the province;
• the proposals by the Conseil de l’École des Bibliothécaires de l’Université de Montréal to consider new avenues to improve library services;
• the call for regional library development by the Société d’Éducation des Adultes du Québec, and
• a Montreal city council investigation into the possibility of establishing city branch libraries.

In viewing the broader postwar landscape, Marquis suggests that Quebec’s public library system might be invigorated by potential federal assistance for libraries from Ottawa, especially if they came under the direction of a provincial Department of Public Instruction, based on current denominational lines and free from any political interference (pp.19–11). His proposal looked, in part, to earlier American ideas, but it reflects the fact that Canadian Dominion-Provincial financial relations were under discussion after 1945. A more liberal tone beyond conservative Quebec nationalism is clearly expressed that foreshadows later progressive development (p. 14): “Que Québec me donne des compétences, et j’obtiendrai notre quote-part des faveurs du pouvoir central” [Give me strength in Quebec, and I will get our share of favours from the federal government]. But Marquis asks: where was the leadership to address the question at hand? when might the government act?

 

The writer proposed that knowledgeable library promoters should take the lead by explaining the utility of public libraries to the public through speeches, radio, and publications. Then, the demand for establishing public libraries could be successful and Quebec could keep pace with library progress in the rest of Canada which was increasingly aligned with American librarianship after Word War II.

The power of libraries to benefit society, Marquis opines, is everlasting as a source of learning. He finishes by illustrating his point with the motto beneath a stained-glass window in his legislative library depicting a woman drawing water from a stream — “Je puise mais n’épuise” [I draw, but I do not exhaust (p. 16)].

 

Mostly, Marquis is a minor but not entirely forgotten figure in Canadian librarianship. Gaston Bernier has written about his career at the National Assembly by remarking that he possessed a conservative, military mindset and a standoffish attitude that narrowed his social advancement. Certainly, he did not participate in any degree in library associations, choosing to pursue personal interests that led him to publish more than two dozen small tracts outside the field of libraries. Yet, from the 1920s to the 1940s, his voice advocated for better libraries, especially those supported by municipalities. He wrote at a time when even three prominent authors of Libraries in Canada (1933) conceded that the immediate improvement of parish libraries was the most practical step forward for library progress in Quebec due to general political and religious support. After his retirement in 1952, Marquis issued a few publications on Quebec commemorative monuments, Mexico, and his regiment at Lévis. He died in 1960 in Quebec City.

 

An article by Gaston Bernier discussing the tenure of Marquis at the Legislative Library, “Georges-Émile Marquis (1878-1960): un bibliothécaire dynamique mais rébarbatif,” Documentation et bibliothèques 58, 2 (2012): 77–83 is available via Érudit at this link.

 

My earlier blog on Les Bibliothèques Populaires (1890) by Eugène Rouillard is at this link.