Fonds
John Frothingham (1788-1870) was born in Portland, Maine, but moved to Montreal in 1809 where he opened a hardware business. In 1836 he formed a partnership with William Workman, and their firm became the largest hardware and iron wholesale firm in British North America. Frothingham was a promoter and shareholder in a number of companies and associations formed during the boom of the 1840s, among them the Montreal Board of Trade, the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad, the Montreal Stock Exchange and the Canada Inland Steam Navigation Company. He helped form the City Bank of Montreal in 1831 and was its president from 1834 to 1849.
Scope and Content
The Frothingham family fonds contains British passports issued to George and Frederick Frothingham and a sketch book of watercolours accompanied by limericks (1).
An additional donation was made in 2002 (M2002.65.X) and contains some images of the Frothingham family and their house "Piedmont" which stood where McGill's student residence Douglas Hall now stands, behind the seats of Molson Stadium. The cartes-de-visite date in the 1860s, and the cabinets range in date from the mid-1870s to the mid-1880s. All but seven of them are Notman portraits. Among the other photographers works is one portrait of May (Mary Louisa) Frothingham on snowshoes, taken by Alexander Henderson. The two snapshots of the family home were probably taken in the 1920-30 period, before its demolition in 1939.
A donation from 2003 added a bible to the collection (M2003.55.1). It belonged to Louise Frothingham.
Another donation in 2016 added a scrapbook of debutante ball invitations compiled by Miss Nancy Elise Keefer.
(1) Source: Guide to Archival Resources at McGill University: Private Papers at McGill University. McGill University Archives. 1985. Vol. 3, p. 322.
Information about the objects in our collection is updated to reflect new research findings. If you have any information to share regarding this object, please email reference.mccord@mccord-stewart.ca.Information about rights and reproductions is available here.
This project is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Azrieli Foundation and Canadian Heritage.