Canoes: A Natural History in North America

Edwin Tappan Adney's model of a Beothuk Canoe.

The outer hulls of bark canoes were often engraved with symbols, animal silhouettes, and geometric shapes. Bark collected in the winter was purportedly better for such etchings than summer bark. Edwin Tappan Adney featured these designs on a canoe built in Old Town, Maine and exhibited at the New York Sportsman’s Show in 1897.

Stakes are planted in the general shape of the canoe; a frame in the shape of a gunwale is dropped in with temporary thwarts attached.

A sheet of bark is placed on the ground, the frame is set on top and weighted with rocks. The stakes are temporarily moved aside.

The stakes are put back and the bark shaped inside of them. Note that the stakes are now tied at their tops. Long battens are used to strengthen the frame.

The bark is in place and the gunwale frame is lifted into position. The sheer height is shown in cutaway (a). Blocks (b) are placed under the ends to provide the rocker.

Shaping the ends and sewing is done upside down, on sawhorses.

Sheathing and ribs are added to give the canoe its final shape.

A row of Tetes de Boule canoes was photographed by Edwin Tappan Adney in the early 1900s.

Edwin Tappan Adney’s map of the eastern woodlands shows western migrations of Native peoples and the diffusion of their canoe types.

Edwin Tappan Adney’s sketch of a moose appeared alongside an 1893 article in Our Animal Friends, a publication of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.