Fur Trade Scotsmen

[Liam]

Liam, is there any particular period that you are needing to fit? I do have a few items but they are quite late.

Isaac

Isaac... Heritage Park represents 3 distinct time periods, the 1860 fur trading period, an 1880 pre-railroad settlement and a 1910 Western Canada town.
I would appreciate any pictorial evidence of kilt wearing during these periods that anyone has in Western Canada.
Slainte....

[IsaacW]

Well... I have been digging through books in my library as I thought I had a few images of HBC families that were wearing kilts and tartan jackets ca. 1860-80s. All I came up with was the following image from Sylvia Van Kirk's book, Many Tender Ties. It is of the Bannatynes of Red River around c 1870. She is Metis and her hubby is Scottish. Interestingly, there are many comments about the Metis of Rupert's Land and how the French/Native Metis usually gravitated more towards the native mothers' culture whereas the Scottish/Native Metis tended to have staunch British attitudes and connect much with their Scottish roots.



I am sure I have seen other photos like this, but I am currently not finding any. There are, however, plenty of examples of tartan skirts by women and plenty of mentions or tartan items in HBC store records from this later period. Of course, tartan clothing was not overly uncommon during this period, especially among women.

Christina McDonald ca. 1861, the daughter of Chief Factor Angus McDonald...


Helen ‘Nellie’ Smith-Isbister-Badger (a.k.a. “Widow Isbister” of St. Clement’s Parish) and daughter (possibly Elizabeth), photographed at Red River during the 1860s. https://casualtyofcolonialism.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/settling-in-to-capitalize-on-farming-re-viewing-colonial-era-red-river/




As mentioned earlier... Scots Bonnets were huge. In my blog, I mentioned some among working men, but this is an image of Chief Factor Donald McTavish of the Hudson's Bay Company, Keewatin district, Manitoba.

[Liam]

Thanks for posting these...

[Tarheel]

Fredric Remington did a "romantic portrayal" from descriptions of western Canadian fur traders. I'm not sure of the date of the print. This print is from a book titled "500 Nations" "An Illustrated History of North American Indians" by Alvin M Josephy. I think the foreground cap is a French styled "flop hat" but the man in the boat has a bonnet.

[uncle remus]

beautiful boat. is it a traditionally made bark craft?

[Todd Bradshaw]

It's made from 1/4" thick redwood strips with clear fiberglass on both sides. For most of its life it was that way. The birchbark is a recent repaint using Home Depot epoxy garage floor paint. I had always wondered whether or not I could do a reasonably believable birchbark paint job, and paint also protects the fiberglass resin from UV damage better than clear varnish does. Should I ever decide to sell it, the birchbark look makes it a lot more marketable to the fur trade buffs and historical reenactors as well. The hull design is authentic and most of the trim-out is about as historically accurate as this building method will allow.

[IsaacW]

Here is a real birch bark canoe... hanging in my classroom. It is not the best build and I have beaten it in a lot of waters for over 1,000 miles. It is now "retired" and residing in my classroom as a teaching tool.

[Matty Ross]

I just thought I would throw this one in for the fun of it. I spent 3 days on this boat with these boys a few years ago. 95 miles on the upper Columbia in Canada and Washington