Donations and acquisitions

The Library Kodascope projector cabinet comprises a Kodascope Model B projector affixed to a 360-degree rotating stand that sits atop an Art Deco-style case in walnut veneer; the cabinet serves as both a storage case and pedestal for the projector. The cabinet also comes with several accessories: a Bell & Howell Filmo Model D camera, a movable screen, an instruction manual as well as a few movies. The projector and accessories were acquired in 1987 by Paul Maréchal, who donated them to the Cinémathèque québécoise in 2010. Mr. Maréchal had originally purchased the item from the estate of gallery owner Gilles Corbeil (1920-1986). The cabinet and projector had most likely been purchased by the latter’s father, a businessman, at the beginning of the Great Depression in the early 1930s, the purchase standing as a testament to the opulent lifestyle of this wealthy French-Canadian family from Outremont. Not only does the object supplement the Cinémathèque’s collection, this rare item—whose style and esthetic quality as a piece of furniture would alone have justified its acquisition by a collection specialized in decorative arts—is historically significant because it testifies to a time, from 1920 to 1930, when wealthy North Americans were consumers of cinema in their private, domestic spaces.