Step 5 Birch Bark Canoe

By Dr. Jamie Morton, past Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection

The impetus for the formation of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection came from the celebrations surrounding the firm’s 250^th anniversary in 1920. The HBC was keenly aware of its role in the development of Canada since 1670, and commemorated the event with a variety of special events, re-enactments, and pageants across the western and northern regions of the country. Although the HBC “Historical Exhibit” was not created in time for the 1920 celebrations, the initiative continued, and the Exhibit was opened in the Winnipeg retail store of the HBC in June 1922.

The object of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Historical Exhibit at Winnipeg is to depict by means of relics, pictures, documents, models, etcetera, the history of the Hudson’s Bay Company, life in the fur trade, the story of the pioneer settlers, and the customs, dress and industries of the aboriginal tribes. (1921 approved statement, quoted in Hudson’s Bay Company, “Catalogue of Historical Relics,” 1935, 6)

With the cooperation of his employer, the federal Minister of Mines, Harlan I. Smith, an ethnologist at the Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa, travelled to Winnipeg in 1921-22 to assist in organizing the Historical Exhibit, selecting objects for display and writing text “to interest visitors.”  The Exhibit’s mandate to depict aboriginal life and culture corresponded well to Smith’s own anthropological work for the federal government.

In 1920-21, he was engaged in fieldwork among the Nuxalk and Tsilqot’in people in the Bella Coola Valley of British Columbia, focusing on the traditional uses of plant and animal materials. For his 1922 fieldwork season, Smith “kindly offered to secure for the Hudson’s Bay Historical Exhibit typical specimens of Indian work in that District.” These objects form an interesting assemblage within the HBC collection, reflecting Smith’s interest in traditional Nuxalk culture and society – objects chosen more for their functional than aesthetic value. This is enhanced by the field notes and visual records Smith obtained at the same time. A pioneer in using film in ethnology, the objects he collected for the HBC Museum Collection are complemented by the still and moving images held today in the collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. The clear provenance [information about the origin and ownership of an object] and complementary documentation transforms this small collection, assembled to represent everyday life for the Nuxalk people, into another treasure within the HBC Museum Collection.

Rack made of red cedar used to dry food such as berry cakes and fish, for preservation. TMM HBC 1504.

By Dr. Jamie Morton, past Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection

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.

By Dr. Jamie Morton, past Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection

The Arctic explorer and HBC employee Dr. John Rae maintained his enthusiasm for Peter Halkett’s invention through several expeditions. A Halkett boat was left for him at Sault Ste Marie in 1845, and in the record of his first Arctic voyage in 1846-47, he referred to it in glowing terms. Rae described Peter Halkett as “the ingenious inventor of the portable air-boat, which ought to be the travelling companion of every explorer.” In August 1847 Rae reiterated his enthusiasm for the Halkett boat:

During the whole of our spring fishing Halkett’s air-boat was used for setting and examining the nets, and was preferred by the fishermen to the large canvas canoe, as it was much lighter, and passed over and round the nets with more facility. Notwithstanding its continued use on a rocky shore, it never required the slightest repair. It is altogether a most useful little vessel, and, as I have said before, ought to form part of the equipment of all surveying parties, whether by land or sea. (John Rae, Narrative of an Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Sea in 1846 and 1847, London, T. & W. Boone, 1850, 116, 176.)

In 1852 Rae requested “1 Halkett’s Air Boat large enough to carry 3 persons,” and referred to “Halkett’s admirable little boats” following his 1853-54 Repulse Bay expedition. After using them on several Arctic voyages, he was convinced  of their usefulness. (E. E. Rich, ed., Rae’s Arctic Correspondence, 1844-55, London, The Hudson’s Bay Record Society, 1953, 224, xcvi.)

While the Halkett boat in the HBC Collection evokes the heroic era of Arctic exploration, and remarkable characters like Sir John Franklin, Sir George Simpson, and Dr. John Rae, the associations extend further. The inventor of the boat, Lieutenant Peter Halkett (1820-1885) of the Royal Navy, was the son of John Halkett (1768-1852), a major shareholder in the HBC who became a member of the company’s managing London Committee in 1811. Peter Halkett’s mother was the sister of Lord Selkirk, another major shareholder in the HBC, and the initiator of three schemes to relocate displaced Highlanders from Scotland to British North America. The last of these, in 1811, included a large land grant from the HBC in Rupert’s Land, centred on the forks of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, which became the Red River Settlement, and later the Province of Manitoba. When Selkirk died, John Halkett became the executor of his estate, travelling to Canada, Rupert’s Land, and the Red River Settlement in 1821-22 as part of his duties.

By Dr. Jamie Morton, past Curator of the Hudson’s Bay Company Museum Collection

An example of this is the Halkett boat – a mid-19th century inflatable or collapsible boat intended for the use of travelers and explorers – in the HBC Collection.

A recent request came from Jeremy Ward, Curator of The Canadian Canoe Museum, Peterborough, ON. www.canoemuseum.ca He was interested in obtaining an image and information on this object for an upcoming exhibit on collapsible and folding watercraft. The information he provided, and my search into the records at The Manitoba Museum, produced some interesting results. First, it is one of two known Halkett Boats surviving worldwide. The other, in the Stromness Museum, in the Orkney Islands of Scotland, was associated with the Arctic explorer and surveyor Dr. John Rae – who was employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company. (Click here to learn more)

Rae considered the boats very useful on his Arctic voyages in the 1840s, which included a search for the lost expedition of the famous Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin.

Ironically, the Halkett Boat in the HBC Museum Collection was intended for Franklin, who in turn gave it to Sir George Simpson, the governor of North American operations for the HBC. It is possible that this boat has never been used, but has remained in its box in the corporate collection of the HBC until the HBC Museum Collection was donated to The Manitoba Museum.