The first meeting of the
Natural History Society of Montreal took place on May 12th, 1827, with
Dr. A. F. Holmes serving as Chair. The group founded a natural history museum of local and foreign animal and plant species, fostering a general spirit of scientific and literary research. In the Society's cataloguing of Canadian natural history, they
appointed an “Indian committee” to describe to fur traders what they should collect when traveling to or living in outlying regions. Society meetings were well attended for almost a century and the group published many papers in the volumes of the "Canadian Naturalist".
Holmes, the Barnstons, and many others were all members of the Natural History Society of Montreal; their botanical vouchers are now stored in the McGill University Herbarium.
