Victor-Alphonse Huard

Victor-Alphonse Huard (born Joseph-Alphonse, sometimes given as Joseph-Victor Alphonse; 28 February 1853 – 15 October 1929) was a

Biography

Huard (who occasionally wrote his name "Huart" until 1890) was born on 28 February 1853 in

He took an interest in natural history as a result of an outing where he was Léon Abel Provancher's hiking companion. He would for most of his life style himself Provancher's disciple, and from 1872 until Provancher's death the men maintained a correspondence.

Churchman at Chicoutimi

There were limited numbers of priests available in the

Huard taught a number of classes including religion, rhetorics, zoology and geography, and took on a number of positions in both institutions. He became the first director of the Grand Séminaire, and was successively or concurrently secretary, prefect of studies, vice-superior and superior of the Séminaire until 1899, stopping to teach in 1893 when he was vice-superior. In addition to those duties, he founded the seminary's bookstore and choir, organized the library, was curator of the museum, and co-founder and co-editor the Petit Séminaire's student newspaper. In 1895 he founded a religious publication, the Messager de Saint-Antoine ("St-Antony's Messenger").

Although he made use of his interests in natural history while teaching, it was not until 1894 that Huard had the chance to truly apply them, when he returned the

These disputes didn't prevent Huard from rising in visibility, mostly thanks to his work at the Naturaliste and textbooks. He became curator at the Musée de l'Instruction Publique, the Parliament's museum, in 1904, and would keep the post until 1927. In 1913 he was appointed Provincial Entomologist, a nomination that surprised other naturalists, as Huard himself, despite his affinities, was not a particularly competent naturalist and never followed college-level classes. He would last two years at the post before being replaced by Georges Maheux. He was also editor of La Semaine religieuse de Québec ("Quebec Weekly Religious Courier"), another periodical founded by Provancher, between 1901 and 1913.

Huard had great ambitions. He hoped to complete Provancher's great work on the insects of the provinces, but only managed before his death to finish the volume on diurnal

Huard acted as a link between the 19th century scientific period and the scientific revival of early 20th century Quebec, and was a model for those of his days. His major contribution was the publication of his natural history books, who were needed to replace the existing ones who, imported from France, adapted poorly for Canadian realities. He was also instrumental in keeping the work of Provancher from being too harshly misjudged. No biography of Huard has been published, although Conrad Laforte's MLSc Thesis, a bio-bibliography of him, come close.

See also

• List of Roman Catholic scientist-clerics

References