Quebec
Quebec names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 2 of them are described by more than one encyclopedia.
Quebec a province of the Dominion of Canada
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a province of the Dominion of Canada, formerly called Canada East; bounded on the N. by Labrador and Hudson Bay; on the E. by Labrador and the Gulf of St. Lawrence; on the S. by New Brunswick, Chaleurs Bay, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York; on the S. W. and W. by the prov ince of Ontario; gross area, 706,834 square miles; pop. about 2,500,000; capital, Quebec. The surface of the province is varied, being diversified by mountains, rivers, lakes, and extensive forests. The chief mountains are the Notre Dame or Shickshock Mountairs, with peaks rising to the height of 4,000 feet; and the Laurentian Mountains, or Laurentides. The chief river is the St. Lawrence, which flows through the entire length of the province. Next to it in importance is its chief tributary, the Ottawa, over 700 miles in length. There are many beautiful lakes, the chief being Grand Lake, Temiscamangue, and Lake St. John. Minerals. Copper is mined in Brome and Megantic counti counties; gold in Beauce; iron ore in St. Maurice; and nickel in Pontiac. The other mineral productions include asbestos, apatite, plumbago, mica, slate-stone, etc. Fisheries. The total value of fish sold in 1917 was almost $3,000,000. The catch consisted principally of cod, mackerel, lobsters, salmon, and herring. Vol. VII-Cyc Agriculture. About half of the population of agriculture. The chief products include maize, buckwheat, tobacco, peas, turnips, barley, wheat, oats, potatoes, and hay. Spruce and pine are exported and the other forest products include ash, cedar, cherry, oak, elm, maple, birch, and beech. Cattle, horses, swine, and sheep are the principal domestic animals. Government. The affairs of the province are administered by a Lieutenant- General, appointed by the Governor- General of Canada, assisted by a responsible executive council. There are two Chambers, the Legislative Council, composed of 24 members who hold their appointments for life, and a Legislative Assembly, which has 81 members, elected by the people for five years. Education. The school system of Quebec provides for compulsory attendance between the ages of 5 and 16. There are three universities: McGill, Lennoxville, and Laval, and over 8,000 elementary and other schools. There is total enrollment of about 500,000 a pupils. History. Quebec was the earliest settled part of Canada. In 1534 Jacques Cartier explored Gaspé Peninsula and the Bay of Chaleurs, and in the following year he explored the St. Lawrence river as far as Montreal. The city of Quebec was founded by Champlain in 1608, who later established trading stations and forts at various places. The French governed Quebec till 1759, when General Wolfe won the battles of the Plains of Abraham, and the English gained control. Prior to 1841 Quebec was called Lower Canada, but in that year it was united to Upper Canada. It was made a province of the Dominion of Canada (q. v.) in 1867 by the Act of Confederation.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a province of Canada. It was known formerly as Lower Canada. It lies on both sides of the St. Lawrence. It extends from Hudson Bay to New England and New Brunswick , and from the Ottawa River to Labrador. Area, 351,873 square miles. Population in 1901, 1,648,898. Portions of the province are hardly to be distinguished from New England, but the majority of the inhabitants are of French descent, as may be inferred from the fact that, of the population named, 1,429,260 adhere to the Catholic faith. French settlements were formed as early as 1608. They extended along the waterways. Lands were surveyed in strips running from the streams backward. Each settler had a bit of water frontage. The rural architecture still reminds the traveler of France. The houses have sharp roofs with wide, spreading, curved eaves, sheltering broad verandas. Many of the barns and other buildings are covered with thatch. There is a tendency to live in villages. The gray spire of the village church is a prominent feature of the landscape. The people are decidedly simple in habits. They are cleanly, temperate, jolly, and contented. The men find employment in tilling their small farms, or in lumbering and in the fisheries. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, many of the inhabitants emigrated to New England, to find employment in the cotton mills. Many also moved westward through northern Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, attracted by the lumbering business. Lumbering is still an important industry of the province. The fisheries yield an income of $2,000,000 a year. Over 6,000 men are employed in the fishing season. Salmon and cod are the principal fishes. The valleys and portions of the uplands are productive. The chief field crops are wheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes, clover, hay, corn, peas, and buckwheat. The French are fond of soup made of peas; hence the term "peasoups," used derisively by their English-speaking neighbors. A system of common schools is maintained at public expense. They are in charge of a superintendent of public instruction and an educational council. Attendance is compulsory. Catholic communities are free to give instruction in the Catholic faith; Protestant communities in the catechism of their choice. Each school is under the direction of a local board, and is supported in part by local taxation. There are in the province nearly 200 academies and high schools, eleven normal schools, eight industrial schools, and various institutions for the blind and deaf mutes. Laval Catholic University at Quebec, the Presbyterian College and McGill University at Montreal are the chief institutions of higher learning. Quebec is represented in the Dominion Parliament by sixty-five members. There is also a provincial Legislative Assembly of seventy-four members.
Quebec the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec. It is situated on a narrow promontory between the St. Lawrence and the St. Charles rivers. A fort was built here as early as 1535 by Jacques Cartier. During the French and Indian War it was captured by Wolfe in 1759 and remained in the hands of the British. In 1823 fortifications of enormous strength were constructed around the brow of the promontory, inclosing a space of about forty acres, making Quebec one of the most strongly fortified places in the New World. It is called the "Gibraltar of America." The city was founded by Champlain in 1608. The population in 1901 was 68,840. A strip of land, lying at the water's edge on both sides of the promontory and at the confluence of the rivers, is known as the Lower Town. It contains the banks, wholesale houses, office buildings, and wharves. It is the busy part of the city. On market days the country people come in their sloops and primitive steamboats from every direction with loads of garden produce, dairy products, and meats. French peasant costumes, like those worn three centuries ago, are still to be seen; but the introduction of readymade clothing robs the markets of their former picturesque appearance. Timber yards or booms line the shores of the St. Lawrence for several miles up river. An immense amount of timber is brought down from the Ottawa and other tributaries of the St. Lawrence and stored here until it is taken on board ships for European ports. A colony of Irish inhabit this section, which is known locally as the "coves." They make a living largely by stowing lumber and handling timber. The corresponding shore of the St. Charles is occupied by the French. A portion of this quarter is known as St. Roch. It is characterized by crooked, narrow streets, and sharp-roofed buildings with massive chimneys at the gable ends. It is to all appearances a bit of France dropped down into the New World. Quebec is the most picturesque city in America. The public buildings, cloisters, churches, and convents are all situated in the Upper Town. The cathedral dates from 1647. Laval College, a French institution, named for the first Catholic bishop of Canada, is situated here. The vicinity of the plateau outside of the city proper is covered with handsome residences commanding magnificent views. The local House of Parliament, the Plains of Abraham, and Wolfe's Monument are objects of interest. The surrounding country abounds in resorts and is full of interesting streams, lakes, and waterfalls. See Montreal ; St. Lawrence; Saguenay
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city and capital of the province of Quebec, Canada; at the confluence of the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers, and on the Grand Trunk, the Canadian Pacific, the Lake St. John the Intercolonial, the Quebec Central, and other railroads; 180 miles N. E. of Montreal. The city is built amid beautiful scenery, for the most part on a narrow, elevated strip of land. It is divided into two parts, called the Upper and Lower Towns. The former is built on the highest part of the plateau and is surrounded with a wall and strongly protected in other ways. The latter, which is chiefly given to trade, occupies the base of Cape Diamond, the extreme point of the tableland. Here much of the rock has been cut away to make room for buildings. Owing to its im- 26 pregnable character Quebec has been called the Gibraltar of America. The shipping of lumber is the principal industry. The chief exports, besides lumber, include iron castings, leather, boots and shoes, grain, peltries, musical instruments, nails, machinery, indiarubber goods, cutlery, steel, and rope. There is an abundant water supply from Lake St. Charles. The principal buildings are the Parliament and Departmental buildings, city hall, custom house, court house, the Basilica, Masonic Hall, the Seminary of Quebec, Laval University (R. C.), Morrin College (Pres.), Ursuline Convent, Church of England, Female Orphan Asylum, St. Bridget's Asylum, the Ladies' Protestant Home, Jeffrey Hale Hospital, Marine Hospital, and the Gray Nunnery. The citadel of Quebec, built on the summit of Cape Diamond, at a height of 333 feet above the river, is said to be the most formidable fortification in North America. There is a beautiful monument to the memory of Wolfe and Montcalm, in the governor's garden which overlooks the St. Lawrence river. On the Plains of Abraham in the suburbs stands a monument to Wolfe, commemorating the victory of 1759. The cite of Quebec, originally occupied by an Indian village named Stadacona, was discovered by Jacques Cartier in 1535; but the city was founded by Chambe the plain in 1608. It continued to center of French trade and civilization, as well as of Roman Catholic missions in North America till 1759, when it fell into the hands of Great Britain by the victory of Wolfe on the Heights of Abraham above the city. Quebec remained the chief city of Canada till the British settlements in the West were erected into a separate province, when it became the capital of Canada East, now forming the about 120,000 province of Quebec. Pop. .
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The two accounts disagree on area because of the 1912 Quebec Boundaries Extension Act, which handed the province the Ungava district north of the old line; the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council then awarded the disputed Labrador interior to Newfoundland in 1927, a ruling Quebec has never formally accepted. The population Collier's put at "about 2,500,000" in 1921 is now roughly nine million, but the deepest change is to the Catholic, rural society Aiton's described in 1910: the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s stripped the Church of the schools and hospitals it had run, created a provincial Ministry of Education in 1964, and nationalised the power companies into Hydro-Quebec. The government Collier's sketched has also gone ", "the appointed Legislative Council was abolished in 1968 and the Legislative Assembly became the National Assembly, while French was made the sole official language by Bill 101 in 1977. Sovereignty referendums in 1980 and 1995 both failed, the second by less than a percentage point.
Written for this edition, 2026.