Canoes: A Natural History in North America

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

Beaver pelts were used in making felt, which could be turned into a top hat, shown here with its case.

Frederic Remington, Radisson and Groseilliers, 1905. Oil on canvas, 110.2 x 194.3 cm.

This 1822 watercolor from the Manitoba Museum’s Hudson’s Bay Company Collection, illustrates a canot du maître carrying two officers.

Adam Sherriff Scott, Chief Trader Archibald McDonald Descending the Fraser, 1828, ca. 1942. 81.28 x 63.5 cm.

H. A. Ogden, “At the Portage” from George Monro Grant, ed., Picturesque Canada (New York: Belden Brothers, 1882). Hudson’s Bay Company employees are shown in this engraving from the late nineteenth century. The sheer size of the 90-pound packs, boxes, and barrels to be transported in the canoes can be appreciated.

Colin Fraser Junior, a trader at Fort Chipewyan, held the job of sorting furs to prepare them for a trip to market in the 1890s.

George Franklin Arbuckle, The Spring Fur Brigades Leave Montreal for the West, ca. 1946. 77.47 x 78.74 cm.

This birch-bark canoe was given to the Prince of Wales by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1860.

Frances Anne Hopkins, Canoe Manned by Voyageurs Passing a Waterfall, 1869. Oil on canvas, 152.4 x 73.7 cm.