Hudson’s Bay Company artifacts at the Manitoba Museum
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In better times, the Hudson’s Bay Company made significant cultural donations, including more than 20,000 artifacts to the Manitoba Museum.
The most famous is the 16-metre replica of the Nonsuch, the ketch that sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668-69, commissioned by HBC to celebrate its tercentenary in 1970.
The museum’s collection also includes brass tokens used as currency in the fur trade, a Plains hide dress and birch-bark canoe, and an array of other Indigenous and colonial objects related to navigation, exploration, retail and trade.
Amelia Fay, Curator of Anthropology and the HBC Museum Collection at the Manitoba Museum, shows paintings that would have been on display in stores.
Here’s a small selection of items included in the massive collection.
Branded items that would have been sold in the stores.
Branded items that would have been sold in the stores.
Late 19th or early 20th century beaded wall pocket, unrecorded Anishinaabe artist.
Early 20th century Siberian wall pocket made from sealskin, unrecorded artist.
Desk calendar, reportedly left at Fort Chipewyan by Sir John Franklin.
Very large items sit covered in an alcove of the the HBC collections lab.
There are drawers full of HBC blankets and sashes.
Late 19th century binoculars owned by George Simpson McTavish Jr.
Early 20th century beaded bible bag, given to George Fowlie in York Factory, unrecorded artist
A beam scale from 1838, likely used at York Factory.
Late 19th century copper trade kettle, a popular trade good brought in by HBC.
The collection includes many handmade items of clothing.
A beaded Bandolier.
1970s HBC blanket coat with fur trim.
