Manitoba Museum, Archives of Manitoba in group of four institutions to share 1670 royal charter creating Hudson’s Bay Co.

Two Manitoba institutions are slated to become the new homes for the Hudson’s Bay Company royal charter after it recently sold to two wealthy Canadian families.

If all goes according to plan, the Manitoba Museum and the Archives of Manitoba will co-host the 1670 document. The Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., and the Royal Ontario Museum are also due to hold the document.

The royal charter that created the company more than 350 years ago was sold to holding companies belonging to the Thomson and Weston families. They were named the winners Wednesday after making an uncontested $18-million bid for the document.

The purchase is subject to court approval as part of the company’s insolvency proceedings.

Manitoba Museum CEO Dorota Blumczyńska is thrilled about the all-but-confirmed acquisition but recognizes the responsibility that comes with it.

“We want to contextualize the charter within the beginnings of the HBC company, the fur trade history, its historic and contemporary impacts on First Nations Inuit and Métis people,” she said. “We don’t want to have it in isolation of what it began and how it shaped what we now call Canada.”

The charter is seen by many as a foundational document that paved the way for Canadian colonialism. At the time it’s eventual auction was announced, Indigenous leaders said the auctioning of items in HBC hands needed to follow a First Nations review process to ensure there were not any items of any cultural, spiritual or historical significance to Indigenous people.

Premier Wab Kinew argued the royal charter is part of Canadian and Indigenous history and it should be displayed in Manitoba, alongside several other HBC artifacts.

On Thursday Manitoba Métis Federation president David Chartrand said he looks forward to the charter also being shared with the MMF’s heritage centre, slated to open in 2027, so “we can share our Nation’s history and experiences, as well.”

The document was previously displayed at the Manitoba Museum in late 2020 to mark the company’s 350th anniversary. It was displayed in the HBC Gallery along with other artifacts.

The charter is currently in storage in Toronto.

In March, Hudson’s Bay applied for creditor protection and announced it would be shuttering the country’s 96 remaining stores, liquidating its assets and auctioning off 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts.

The charter is among the country’s most significant. It was King Charles II’s way of granting HBC control over one-third of modern Canada and laying the groundwork for mass colonialism.

The Archives of Manitoba owns nine supplemental charters to the original document, ranging from 1884 to 1970, when HBC officially split from British ownership and became a Canadian company. The Manitoba facility is the official archives of all Hudson’s Bay documents.

HBC deposited most of its records to the archive in 1974. In 1994 the company officially donated them to the province.

The archives also has the first book of meeting minutes between the government and committee responsible for HBC and onwards, records that were kept at all the various HBC posts, journals, account books and various correspondence.

Kathleen Epp, keeper of the Hudson’s Bay Company archives, couldn’t say what the plan would be once the court ruling went through, but the archives will work with the three other institutions to ensure it is available to the public.

Although it is the keeper of most Hudson’s Bay documents, Epp said the archives couldn’t claim ownership of the document as soon as it became part of credit protection proceedings.

“Even if it’s not physically here, we’ve always intellectually included it in our inventory,” Epp said. “We’re just glad someone had the funds to do so and took it upon themselves to donate it to people who could preserve it.”

The Thomson and Weston families said they will also donate $5 million to support the charter’s preservation and help maintain public access to the document.

The Thomsons made their fortune in the media business and once owned a controlling stake in HBC. The Westons have ties to grocery giant Loblaw and high-end department store Holt Renfrew.

Originally, HBC planned to have Heffel Fine Art Auction House sell the charter but changed course in July, when the Westons offered $12.5 million for it through their holding company, Wittington Investments Ltd. They wanted to donate the charter to the Canadian Museum of History, a Crown corporation.

— With files from the Canadian Press

Nicole.buffie@freepress.mb.ca