The Seagram Museum fonds

The Seagram Museum fonds. - 1848-1995.

ca. 7 m of textual records and other material.

View full finding aid (277 KB, 45 pages)

The Seagram Museum opened on May 16, 1984 in Waterloo, Ontario, on the site of the founding plant of Joseph E. Seagram and Sons Ltd., Canadian subsidiary of The Seagram Company. It was "the world's only integrated museum devoted to the history and technology of wine and spirits," and presented the story of the Seagram Company, the distilling industry, and associated industries such as glass-making, cooperage and advertising. Supporting the collection of artifacts was one of the finest beverage alcohol libraries in the world, as well as archives. After twelve years in operation, the Seagram Museum closed permanently on March 27, 1997.

The archival materials donated by The Seagram Museum were acquired from a number of sources, through purchase and donations from individuals and from other offices of the Seagram Company, particularly from offices within Seagram's Waterloo plant. The archives collections of the Seagram Museum were initially established in 1970 at LaSalle, Quebec and until 1982 functioned as the Seagram Information Centre, whose mandate was to acquire, arrange and make available to company employees all historical and contemporary records pertaining to the beverage alcohol industry and the Seagram Company in particular. These collections were moved to Waterloo in 1982. A significant donation of material from the home of Joseph Edward Frowde Seagram, grandson of the founder Joseph Emm Seagram, was made in 1982, and a further group of material from his home was later purchased from another source.

The portion of the Seagram Museum archives donated to the University of Waterloo falls into four distinct groupings. The first of these is records of the Seagram Company's Waterloo Plant, from its beginnings in 1857 as Granite Mills to its purchase in 1928 by Distiller's Corp., owned by Samuel Bronfman. The second group consists of archives relating to the Seagram Family. These are fragmentary but represent a beginning in documenting an important local family, and contain correspondence, wills, ephemera, vertical files and photographs relating to the Seagram Family and to the local area as well as to other family names of interest, such as Hespeler, Warnock, MacLachlan and Bland. The third group is a collection of documents relating to the history of beverage alcohol, documents which were donated or purchased and kept for their topical interest. These include manuscripts, clippings, ephemera and articles on the wine trade and distilling. The fourth group is a sousfonds which consists of records of the Seagram Museum Library and Archives, documenting book and archival purchases and donations from 1982 to 1995.

Title based on content of the fonds.

Includes ca. 1600 photographs, 1 audiocassette, 1 film and 2 artifacts.

Donated in 1997 by The Seagram Museum and The Seagram Company.

Arranged in 4 groups, of which three are sousfonds and one is a collection: Sousfonds 1: Joseph E. Seagram and Sons, Ltd.; Sousfonds 2: Seagram Family; Collection 3: Alcohol General; Sousfonds 4: The Seagram Museum.

All copyright and literary rights held by the donor were transferred to the donee.

Finding aid available: file level. (277 KB, 45 pages)

The Seagram Museum collections were dispersed to a number of institutions, including the City of Waterloo (Recreation and Leisure, Program and Community Development), Wilfrid Laurier University, and Brock University in St. Catharines.

The archives of The Seagram Company after 1928 are housed at the Hagley Museum, Wilmington, Delaware, as are the Bronfman Family papers.

This is part of a donation that included approximately 1200 books as well, which are housed in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room. Information about these is available in the library's on-line catalogue, TRELLIS.

This fonds does not contain records relating to bottles or bottle values, posters, prints, or other collectibles.

Call number: GA104

Special Collections

The Seagram Museum fonds