A bit of history...

Our mission: To preserve, study, showcase, and disseminate the documentary and ethnological historical heritage of the Sherbrooke region with the aim of sparking the interest and fostering the sense of belonging of Sherbrooke residents toward their city and its history, and thus contributing to establishing Sherbrooke as a renowned tourism destination.

The Mhist was founded on March 2, 1927, under the name Société d’histoire des Cantons-de-l’Est. From the outset, the Société gave itself a twofold mandate: To preserve the local and regional heritage, and to disseminate the history of Sherbrooke and the Eastern Townships.

On April 17, 1989, the Société d’histoire des Cantons-de-l’Est changed its name to Société d’histoire de Sherbrooke. The next year, it was certified as a private archives service by Archives nationales du Québec. The mandate of this service is to preserve and complete archival collections and make them accessible to researchers and the general public.

In May 1992, the museum was moved to the newly created Centre d’interprétation de l’histoire de Sherbrooke on Dufferin Street. The Second Empire-style heritage building, built in 1885 to house the post office and customs, was the property of the City of Sherbrooke.

From the late 2000s, the Société d’histoire de Sherbrooke came to be recognized as the region’s most significant historical society and one of the largest in Québec. The dynamism, professionalism, and expertise of its team as well as the wide range of its dissemination activities have confirmed its uniqueness among this type of institution. For this reason, in June 2019, the Société d’histoire de Sherbrooke changed its name to Mhist-Musée d’histoire de Sherbrooke, which is more representative of its vision, reality, and activities. With a passion and desire to disseminate the region’s history, the Mhist team proposes a host of diverse and innovative activities, both within its premises and beyond their walls.

The Mhist is an NPO and receives its funding from its members, the City of Shebrooke, the Ministère de la Culture des Communications, and the Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec.

 

Governor General’s History Awards

In November 2017, the Mhist team was the recipient of the Governor General’s History Awards for Excellence in Community Programmingfor its History Goes to the Marketevent. The Mhist fully embodied its mandate to disseminate historical heritage with its History Goes to the Marketevent, which has remained at the core of the historical and current reality of the city since 2012. Through various activities and dramatized tours, the history of public markets and life in Sherbrooke in 1900 is revealed. Each edition is led by a team of more or less10 people from the Mhist , along with local artists who do everything in their power to ensure the success of this friendly and festive weekend. The Mhist wishes to thank its financial partners, in particular MPs Luc Fortin, Guy Hardy, and Pierre-Luc Dussault, as well as Destination Sherbrooke, the Marché de la Gare’s business owners, and its collaborating artists, without whom History Goes to the Marketcould not have been a reality!