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1884.54.4

Model of a birch bark canoe.

On display

1884.54.4

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Collection type
Object
Description
Model of a birch bark canoe.
Long description
Model of a birch bark canoe. The structure is of wooden planks covered with birch bark., which is stitched onto the frame with thin strips of wood. The canoe is decorated with quillwork in white and yellow, with a broad stripe along each side and sun or flower shapes at the ends. [El.B 15/02/2012]
Geographical reference
Canada
Northern America > North America > Canada
New Brunswick or Newfoundland
Cultural groups
Mi'kmaq
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1874
Date collected
Prior to 1874
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Birch Bark Wood Plant, Material Porcupine Quill Animal, Material Spruce Root Plant, Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Process Quillwork, Process Dyed, Process Stitched, Process Decorated, Process Carved
Dimensions
Length x Width x Height 690 x 113 x 70 mm bow
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.54.4 PR Cat other PR nos: 1621 1252
Research and responses

It is not stated in any of the primary sources which object [and where it was] the canoe was modelled on. It was presumably used as example of a missing link in one of the series [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998]

Conversation, Laura Peers with Kathy-Anne Hughes (Mikmaq graduate student at Oxford), March 2015: the figures in quillwork on bow and stern of this model canoe are most likely sun symbols, not flowers. The sun is a key image for eastern Algonkian peoples, including Mikmaq. [LPeers, 27/10/2016]

Associated publications
Described on page 81 of Micmac, Maliseet, Beothuk Collections in Great Britain / Inventory of Micmac, Maliseet and Beothuk Material Culture in International Collections: Great Britain (Nova Scotia Museum Curatorial Report Number 62), by Ruth Holmes Whitehead (Halifax: Nova Scotia Museum, 1988). Whitehead writes: '9. MICMAC. Canoe model: quillwork. (1621) (1678) (1252). 19th century Birchbark, spruce root, porcupine quills, organic dyes, woodsplints, wood. Typical Micmac canoe shape, single sheet of bark cut and folded, sewn with spruce root. Woodsplint gunnels, oversewn with spruce root; two wooden ribs. “G.P.” in ink on one rib. Decorated with porcupine quillwork on sides, using the bark insertion method. Quills yellow and white; design a horizontal rectangle running under the gunwales, with the quills inserted diagonally across the rectangle. A line of one white and one yellow quill-widths runs from midsection of band to outer edge, terminating in a sun design of white centre and yellow rays. LENGTH: 69 cm WIDTH: 11.3 cm HEIGHT BOW: 10.5 cm HEIGHT SHEER: 7 cm PROVENANCE: Original Pitt-Rivers collection “S1621=1678 black (1252)”. CONDITION: Fair. Quillwork faded. Bark faded on one side.' Copy of publication in RDF: RESEARCHERS: WHITEHEAD (and a further copy in Balfour Library). The Museum also holds a copy of the draft typescript of the relevant pages of Whitehead's publication with a set of contact prints of her photographs (see RDF: RESEARCHERS: WHITEHEAD). [JC 19 2 2009]

Search terms: Navigation, Model, Canoe

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