David Ross McCord's interest in collecting archival material - historical manuscripts, his personal family papers, and correspondence concerning his search for artifacts - established the mandate for the subsequent acquisition of material into this collection. Subjects as diverse as religion, the military, the fur trade, and exploration in Canada are covered in diaries and account books. Recent donations include papers from the Montreal tailors Gibb and Company, which aptly complement the Museum's costume collection. Papers of the de Rocheblave/Bouthillier/Routh family from 1696 to 1962 have also been donated. Pierre de Rocheblave and his brother-in-law Tancrede Bouthillier, men who were close to the centre of government, maintained a lively correspondence between 1837 and 1838, a time of political crisis in Quebec.