Card accompanying the scholarship, awarded to Miss Newcomb from Villa Maria boarding school, to be given the victims of the Saguenay Fire

In the spring of 1870, the farmers in Saguenay set fire to areas of land where trees had been cut for farming. However, dry weather and strong winds spread the fire over a 3,900 sq. km surface. Hundreds of people were killed or were left without resources. The Great Fire of 1870 resulted in an important Quebec-wide movement of solidarity. Even students participated in the reconstruction effort: they offered their school prizes, for example books, to people in need.