Materials

Birchbark, black spruce, spruce root, cedar bark

Techniques or Format

The boat has a straight bottom with a sheer that turns up sharply, but the ends are not as high as the canoes built by the Algonkins who made "crooked boats" with a very noticeable rocker. The ends are full and rounded and then fall slightly inboard. The canoe seems to have a rounded stem piece that is secured by lashing. There is a gunwale, outwale, and gunwale cap. The gunwale seems to be attached to the outwale with nails or some sort of steel. The bark cover is secured by lashing along the gunwale in groups rather than a continuous spiral. There is a headboard at each end, but it is unknown how it is connected to the stem piece without deconstructing the canoe. The thwarts are also tenoned into the gunwale and secured by lashing with spruce root and some with wire; the wire may be a later addition for repair. Lashing is done with spruce roots, and stitching along bark cover is secured by applying black spruce. The inside paneling is made of uneven strips that overlay each other. The ribs are the same width and evenly spaced. Each end also has a embroidered flower made of porcupine quills on each end and both sides, for a total of four flowers.

Motifs and Patterns

Four embroidered flowers

Original and Subsequent Uses

Possibly a souvenir made by a Native American for European tourists.

Phillips, Ruth B. Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900. Seattle: University of Washington, 1998. Print

Other Notes

Paddles are present, though they may not be attached according to their original intention.

Condition: Fragile. One side is lighter than the other. Lashings to thwarts may have been repaired and replaced with wire. Some of the spruce root used for the bark cover lashing has fallen off. Bark cover is slowly coming off, as well as the quillwork.

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

The creation of model canoes commenced in the 19th century when Native Americans came into contact with Europeans, and souvenir production boomed. During the 19th century, nuns taught Native Americans the art of embroidery; the quillwork of the flower at each end of the canoe can be a symbol of this practice. Natives were most likely taught to create such objects by missionaries of the Catholic Church. Prior to contact with Europeans, Native Americans did not embroider directly on the surfaces of bark with porcupine quills or moosehair. In the early nineteenth century, nuns gradually stopped making bark souvenirs, but such objects continued to be produced by tribes such as the Lorette-Wendat. In the first half of nineteenth century, Maliseet and Mi’kmaq also started making these souvenirs, which may have been integrated from the Huron-Wendat. The Great Lakes people began making fancy wares ornamented with floral images two or three decades after the production by Huron-Wendat, Mi’kmaq, and Maliseet. The end of nineteenth century saw a decline in the selling of embroidered bark. Because model canoes with quillwork appeared only after the 1800 and largely disappeared by the end of the century, I was able to narrow down the date of creation to the nineteenth century.

Adney, Tappan, and Howard Irving. Chapelle. The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1964. Print;

Jennings, John, and Tappan Adney. Bark Canoes: The Art and Obsession of Tappan Adney. Richmond Hill, Ont.: Firefly, 2004. Print;

Phillips, Ruth B. Trading Identities: The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900. Seattle: University of Washington, 1998. Print

Current Location: Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA, USA

Catalogue, Accession or Reference Number: P2253

GKS Reference Number: 25787