John Halkett’s visit to British North America came just a decade after his brother-in-law, Lord Selkirk, initiated the Red River resettlement scheme – and the bicentenary of the arrival of the Selkirk settlers is being commemorated in many ways in 2012.  There is a variety of objects in the HBC Museum Collection that relate to these formative years of the Red River Settlement, starting with the Halkett collection.  Another important group in the HBC Collection relating to this place and time was assembled by William Kempt.

The fine collection of First Nations objects assembled by William Kempt in the 1820s.

Untitled (Scene on River Bank), Peter Rindisbacher, 1822-24, watercolour. This is one of the paintings collected by William Kempt, now in the HBC Museum Collection. TMM HBC 83-23-F.

He had a keen eye for material culture, and it is fascinating to compare objects collected by individuals like Halkett and Kempt with Rindisbacher’s portrayals of the objects being worn or used by the people of Red River in the 1820s.

Detail of TMM HBC 83-23-F. This portrays some of the material culture of the Red River population in the 1820s. Objects represented by Rindisbacher such as the woolen and hide leggings, woolen hood, iron cooking pot, trade gun, and bow and arrows are found in the HBC Collection at The Manitoba Museum.

One of the things that makes the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection so fascinating is these sorts of stories and connections that exist between the collectors, the collections, and the objects.  Added to the stories of the objects and their creators, this means that the HBC Collection symbolizes and evokes broad historical themes, in a way that may be unique among Canadian museum collections.