birch bark; softwood; spruce root; porcupine quills, natural and dyed blue, red, green, yellow, orange and brown

A model canoe decorated with quillwork.
The eagles appear to be made of quills dyed to varying degrees, giving them a "stripey" look, which CW suggests was an intentional choice made by the artist. Also, the quillwork on one side appears to be more faded than the other.

The canoe is decorated with floral motifs, with an eagle motif placed on both sides of the bow and stern.

Quills have been used to suggest pitch lines on the canoe.

The American eagle designs have bi-cultural significance. They reflect how makers produced items which appealed to American tourists, however, Thunderbirds were also important in Odawa cosmology. (RP)

Eagles bodies have vertical striped quillwork. Also, the brown quillwork imitates the seams and pitch of the canoe where it is usually sewn together.

1850-1875 - Lewis H. Morgan collected quillwork similar to this piece as in regards to provenance and time period.

This canoe was donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum in October 1983 by the Eton College Museum through its assistant master, William Lutley Sclater. The Eton College Museum acquired the canoe from the collection of British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, and his wife Lady Jane Franklin, in 1870. The canoe may have been collected by Sir John Franklin, or by Lady Jane Franklin when she was in the Great Lakes region in August and September of 1860, although there no known documentary evidence to support this.

Loaned to the National Portrait Gallery, London, from 7 July to 31 October 2004 for the exhibition, "Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travellers."

Reproduced in colour in the accompanying cataloge "Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travellers " by Dea Birkett (National Portrait Gallery Publications: London, 2004) on p.67.

For a more detailed discussion of similar quillwork and the relationship of such items to the tourist trade, see Ruth Phillips, Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900 (Montreal: McGill-Queens UP, 1998): plates 20 and 22, figs. 5.3, 5.21 and 5.24, and pg. 140.

This record was created as part of a Great Lakes Research Alliance for the Study of Aboriginal Arts and Cultures (GRASAC) research trip to the Pitt Rivers Museum and British Museum, December 8-22 2007, funded by a grant from the International Opportunities fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

researchers present: Heidi Bohaker (HB), Al Corbiere (AC), Stacey Loyer (SL), Janis Monture (JM), Laura Peers (LP), Ruth Phillips (RP), Anne De Stecher (AS), Cory Willmott (CW).