Materials

birchbark, quillwork, wood, yarn, colors

Techniques or Format

The birchbark canoe consists of two birchbark parts that were sewed together on the left side. The tension caused by the bent bark is hold together by a red and black woolen yarn on the bottom and top. The yarn on the top also holds wooden borders.
A wooden yoke is set in the middle of the canoe’s hollow, and a woolen red yarn bridges further left.

Motifs and Patterns

The quillwork decoration can be separated in three parts for each boat side: bow, middle part and stern. Bow and stern decoration are symmetric to each other. On the outer front, several white quillwork stripes run vertically encompassing a red rhombus, sidewise followed by two similar motifs looking like “plants” with four diagonally running leaves/ blue stripes on each side. Beneath the plants are two “pyramids” consisting of five, horizontally run stripes in blue color. Underneath are two horizontally run white stripes. The lower one forms a triangle with two double blue stripes.

The middle part is separated from the two outer parts by three vertical white stripes respectively. The decoration on the middle part can be separated in an upper and lower part. The upper part on the left side consists of alternating blue, red and white stripes that are diagonally running (from bottom left to upper right) until meeting the stripes from the right side (from bottom right to upper left) in a rhombus in the middle of the canoe. The lower part decoration consists of blue and white zigzag stripes.

Dimensions: 0 × 0 × 0 mm

Condition: For many decades, the boat model was exhibited in an old showcase, providing minimal protection. Accordingly, the colors are fading, several seams and some quillwork is lost.

Reasons for connecting this relative with particular times, materials, styles and uses

Museum Correspondence from January 23rd, 1880

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: D 0895

Date of Acquisition by the Institution: 1880-01-23

Who the Institution Acquired the Relative or Heritage Item From: Records of the museum

Date Relative was First Removed or Collected from its Community Context: 1877-1878

Collection Narratives and Histories

The boat model was given to the St. Gallen museum by Chales Wetter-Rüsch, a famous Swiss textile merchant born in St. Gallen. In 1878 he was travelling North America for one year donating three objects to the St. Gallen Historical and Anthropological Museum.

GKS Reference Number: 25823

How to Cite this Item

D 0895, "Birchbark Canoe Model" from the Historische und Völkerkundemuseum St. Gallen