Are you curious about science, architecture, artifacts, history, or music? We are! Throughout the In These Spaces project, the Morrin Centre explored a diverse set of subjects using the Morrin Centre’s spaces as a backdrop. Over the course of five live-streamed events, experts talked about their field of expertise with our host Peter Black. You can now enjoy short excerpts from these events to discover the topics, and the experts, who gave life to the project.
Additionally, five short capsules, available on this page, were filmed to present a selection of artefacts from the Morrin Centre collections. Presented by Géraldine Franchomme, Museum and Exhibit Coordinator, and Kathleen Hulley, Head of Library and Collections, these capsules present objects usually not accessible to the public.
This project is made possible thanks to the support of the Government of Canada, Québecor, and the Satir Productions group.
Restoration of the Morrin Centre
Michel Boudreau has been associated with the Morrin Centre since the late 1980s, when the original campaign to restore the building was launched by the Ville de Québec. The Morrin Centre project stands out for its exemplary approach to restoration ever since its inception. Taking place over 40 years and completed at the end of the 2000s, this noteworthy restoration project is still viewed with pride and admiration by the professionals, managers, donors and, of course, the hundreds of workers who contributed.
Follow the traces of this restoration, and you will never see this building in quite the same way!
Book Conservation
What is the difference between preservation and conservation? If mold or signs of an insect infestation are found in a book, what can be done to prevent it from spreading through a collection? What materials are typically found when examining an old book?
During this conference broadcasted from our library, Marie Trottier, a book and archival document conservator, discussed the answers to these questions and much more. Participants learned more about her profession, heard some of her techniques for caring for old books, and received ideas on how to preserve their own book collections.
Acoustic
The string quartet made up of Isaac Chalk, Brett Molzan, Ryan Molzan and Alexandre Sauvaire presented a superb concert, followed by a discussion of the acoustics of the Morrin Centre ballroom, College Hall, and of the job of professional musician.
History of Surgery
Where does modern surgery as we know it come from? It’s this question that Dr. Thomas Schlich endeavoured to answer in his presentation titled “How Surgery Became Modern: Bodies, Instruments, Practitioners.”
The history of modern surgery can be developed around three themes: first, the changes in the understanding of the body and its diseases; second, the development of surgical techniques, such as hemostatic forceps, anesthesia, or antisepsis; and third, the changing professional status of surgical practitioners from craftsmen to scientifically trained and specialized doctors. These interrelated changes occurred in the past two hundred years and led to the modern, highly technical, and scientific kind of surgery that we are familiar with today.
History of Capital Punishment in Quebec
With his presentation titled “The Hanged: Two Centuries of Executions in Quebec, 1760-1960,” professor Donald Fyson offered a summary of the permanent exhibit about capital punishment in Quebec launched in May 2019 by the Morrin Centre. The pandemic having restricted public access to the exhibit and the associated multimedia tour less than a month after its launch, Professor Fyson was generous enough to provide, through this presentation, a summary of the history of capital punishment in Quebec, based largely on the exhibit’s content, along with new material collected since its launch.
[Video coming soon]