Huard (who occasionally wrote his name "Huart" until 1890) was born on 28 February 1853 in
Saint-Roch, a ward of
Quebec City,
Quebec. His father, Laurent Huard, was a joiner; his mother was Ursule Thérien. He attended the
Petit Séminaire of Quebec from 1863 to 1872, graduating with high standings. 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
Saguenay region, as it had only recently been opened for
colonization, so Huard was sent to teach at the newly opened
Seminary of Chicoutimi, which acted as both a
minor seminary (
Petit séminaire, lit. "little seminary") and a seminary proper (
Grand séminaire, lit. "great seminary"). Huard's slight stutter and shyness prevented him from ever assuming active parish duty, although he is described as an affable, passionate man and a competent musician. 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
Naturaliste Canadien, Provancher's monthly journal, to active publication. Although Provancher had hoped the new government would be willing to offer grants, Huard had to maintain the magazine alone until 1919 when the governments of
Lomer Gouin and
Louis-Alexandre Taschereau began to offer financial assistance. Under Huard, the magazine was more popular and less technical than Provancher's version, although it maintained an anti-evolution stance. The
Naturaliste was printed practically without interruption until Huard's death. Huard also acquired part of Provancher's papers and his
herbarium. Part of Provancher's last works would be published posthumously in the
Naturaliste.
Naturalist at Quebec In 1901 he returned to Quebec City, where his career took a definitive turn toward science. Between 1905 and 1925 he wrote a number of successful science
textbooks, mostly for
primary education. Although some were repeatedly reissued and used as the basis of other texts, they often garnered criticism for being too technical and suited more for teachers than pupils, or for their scientific qualities. His manual of
geology in particular is maligned:
Marie-Victorin declines to review it,
Germain Beaulieu publicly vilipends it in
La Patrie, and a writer in
Science says it "dates from the previous century".
Joseph-Clovis-Kemner Laflamme, another prominent naturalist, also criticized Huard's Zoology schoolbook. 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
lepidoptera, leaving
moths,
aptera and
diptera unfinished. He did complete a biography of Provancher, however, which was first published in the
Naturaliste, then in book form. This work, despite being more
hagiographic than historic, remains the only full-blown biography of Provancher. Amongst his other publications are a history of the church in Saguenay, notes from a travel in the
Côte-Nord region (one of the first natural history descriptions of that region) and the
Catholic Encyclopedia article on the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Chicoutimi. ==Influence and legacy==