At the end of the 19th century, the general hospitals of the city of Montreal underwent a significant modernization process implying growing expenses; during the same time period, Canadian corporations also adopted their modern form, which, as it allowed the firms to exercise an unprecedented economic and social power, put them under tightened public scrutiny. In these turbulent times of organizational transformation, the hospitals and businesses of the Canadian economic metropolis developed an intricate relationship to serve each other's interests. As the general hospitals desperately needed the community's support to maintain and broaden their functions, Montreal corporations wished for a productive and pacified workforce, effective and rationalized health services, and a positive reputation as benevolent social actors : corporate philanthropy practices united the two types of organizations in an unofficial partnership that benefited them both.
This relationship has been understudied in Canadian historiography, which is surprising considering that more than a third of the donations received by the two main lay general hospitals of the city - the Montreal General Hospital and the Hôpital Notre-Dame - from 1880 to 1915 come from companies, at a time when corporate giving was not a widespread phenomenon. The analysis of the annual reports and minute books of the Montreal General Hospital, the Hôpital Notre-Dame and companies which supported them between 1880 and 1915 offers us a novel outlook on the unknown practices of early Canadian corporate philanthropy - as the Committee on Corporate Giving realized its first official survey only in 1946. The presentation exposes the patterns, motives and implications of the Montreal corporate philanthropic phenomenon at the turn of the 20th century. This historical investigation introduces us to the meaningful relationship developed between social service organizations and the corporate world in a period of unsteady redefinition of public and private roles.