At Pointe-à-Callière, conserving and presenting our past are two inseparable concepts. While conservation has to do with discovering objects and preserving them in the long term, presentation requires that the remains and artifacts be displayed and explained.

Conserving collections

To achieve its fundamental mission of conserving its collections, the Museum has set objectives for excellence in terms of preventive conservation and emergency response policies. Pointe-à-Callière applies optimal environmental standards (temperature, relative humidity, lighting, air quality) and museum standards for handling, packing, transporting and displaying objects.

Conserving the remains in situ

The Museum conserves and exhibits thousands of square metres of archaeological remains in situ. They consist mainly of stone or brick masonry, paving stones and stone slabs, wood, and both horizontal and vertical archaeological soils.

Every year, a regular maintenance program is carried out in the remains (removing dust, securing loose stones or bricks, reapplying consolidating products).

With the goal of presenting the remains properly, major conservation work has been planned and carried out since 1992. The soil on which the Museum stands acts as a sponge, drawing the moisture from the water table upward, causing salt deposits to fracture the soil surface and erode the base of the remains. The Museum has developed a very specific conservation program to address this problem.

The conservation approach respects the archaeological and authentic nature of the remains. Since the Museum opened, these principles and methods have been strictly applied. The Museum consults and works closely with conservation experts, including those from the Centre de conservation du Québec and the Canadian Conservation Institute.

Work on the cemetery

Pointe-à-Callière is responsible for protecting the oldest traces of the founding of Montréal: the in situ remains of the small Catholic cemetery that Maisonneuve placed outside the walls of Fort Ville-Marie.

These priceless remains are subject to erosion, however, and require very special attention. After many expert analyses, Pointe-à-Callière chose the transfer technique, used mainly in Europe for conserving mosaics and wall paintings and applied successfully at the Museum in the past. Our archaeologists, with the assistance of experts, first consolidated the exposed soil surface with resins, before removing the top layer of soil, section by section, transferring it to a rigid, waterproof backing and then replacing it. This complex and exacting task was carried out in full view of visitors, who had a chance to watch the restoration work in progress.

In 2001, Pointe-à-Callière received a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History for the quality of work on conserving the remains of Montréal's first Catholic cemetery.