Liberal societies value personal initiative and responsibility. As a result, they often portray social disparities as a reflection of individual worth. And yet, poverty has clearly persisted as a collective problem, one that highlights the inequalities at the root of social organization. Indeed, although levels have fluctuated over time, this social justice issue has loomed large throughout the history of Quebec.

This online exhibition examines the “institutional moment” of the story. Between the early nineteenth century and the 1930s, in Quebec and elsewhere, an extensive network of institutions emerged in response to poverty, disease, and deviance: jails, reformatories, nurseries, orphanages, hospices, asylums, shelters, and hospitals. These diverse facilities all reflected a trend toward confinement—the voluntary or forced isolation of society’s most vulnerable members.

A range of institutions left their mark on urban life in Quebec, and the grey stone buildings that housed them now form part of a rich architectural heritage. In addition to exploring the emergence of this institutional network, the online exhibition aims to provide a look inside the walls at the forgotten and overlooked stories of people who were labelled as destitute, sick, insane, addicted, deviant, delinquent, incompetent, or simply lazy…