Subseries

This subseries chronicles the evolution of the wholesale hardware firm Caverhill, Learmont & Co., founded in 1884 by brothers Frank and George Caverhill, their cousin Thomas Henry Newman, and Joseph Bowles Learmont. The company was the successor to Crathern & Caverhill, founded 30 years earlier by brothers John and Thomas Caverhill II and James Crathern. The subseries is composed primarily of documents commemorating important anniversaries of this line of businesses.

The subseries notably includes a scrapbook of various documents compiled on the occasion of the firm's centenary. These documents include, among other things, the menu of the 100th Anniversary Banquet hosted at the Mount Royal Hotel on December 22, 1937. The scrapbook also contains ads dating from the late 19th century along with press clippings and magazine excerpts, most of which were published on the occasion of the centenary. For example, both The Gazette and The Montreal Daily Herald newspapers reported on the company's long history as part of articles on the December 22 event. On the same subject, the scrapbook includes articles from The Montreal Daily Star newspaper, New York magazine Hardware Age, and Hardware and Metal magazine, which devoted several pages to the event. There is also a supplement from the January 1905 edition of Hardware Dealers' Monthly devoted to the 50th anniversary of the firm, as well as an article from MacLean's magazine dated January 15, 1926, that examines its history and longevity. There are two albumen print photographs the size of calling cards. One, taken by photographer James Inglis, features former employees, while the other, taken by Notman & Sandham, reproduces an illustration of the firm's offices and warehouse on St. Peter Street in Montreal.

In addition to the scrapbook, the subseries includes a copy of the March 6, 1896, edition of the Montreal publication The Canadian Journal of Commerce, in which an ad for the firm boasts that it has the "Largest and most complete stock of shelf hardware in the Dominion." There are also copies of newspaper clippings and magazine excerpts, some of which are in the scrapbook. One article reports on the death of Joseph Bowles Learmont (1914), retracing his career as a leading figure in Montreal business circles. Finally, the subseries contains a Caverhill, Learmont & Co. catalogue listing the hardware items sold by the company and a supplement from Hardware and Metal magazine entitled More than One Hundred Years of Service - and Still Expanding, which chronicles the company's expansion into Ontario.