Victoria Slonosky gives the James McGill/Sigma Xi Lecture

Vicky Slonosky, visiting scholar in our lab, gave the James McGill Society lecture on “Climate in the Age of Empire: Weather observers in colonial Canada”. The talk also was sponsored by the Montreal chapter of Sigma Xi.

Montreal weather records, dating from the early 19th century, are held in the McGill University Archives and the McCord Museum. Thomas McCord (1750-1824) and John Samuel McCord (1801-1865), among others, kept detailed weather logs. This talk considers how the study of meteorology and climatology in 19th century Montreal led to the foundation of the McGill Observatory.