Start with the article on Silverprint's website:
http://www.silverprint.co.uk/info/yespap.html, it's one of the rare well-researched online pieces on it.
After that, I could only suggest you to look into libraries. Given that you're in Montreal, Concordia, McGill and UQAM would have pretty decent resources together to get you started. To make for an easier start, go to the Grande Bibliothèque and browse through the photography section (dewey numbers 700-ish). There are plenty of history books in it.
I know that McGill has an English edition of Gaston Tissandier's Handbook of Photography, which was written during the collodion era (1874), well before silver gelatin was even a reality! The translation is from 1876, and the neat thing about it is that it contains advertisings (yes, advertisement in books, who knew!) for photographic products. Get it from the Blackader-Lauterman lib, call number TR145 T61.
BTW, what school are you doing this research for? And welcome to APUG from a fellow Montréalais!