Arnold canoes at The Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation

[Benson Gray]

My ongoing research related to unusual canoes at small museums led me to The Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation in Waltham, Massachusetts. The first link below has more details. They have a nice green Arnold canoe on display although it has no tag or obvious serial numbers. They kindly granted me access to their archives which include a red Arnold with a tag and serial number 658, a racing canoe with no tag (built in the style of a Walter Dean), two double paddles with a crescent moon design on the blades, a north woods style single paddle, and a wonderful collection of period photographs from that area including two that identify H. B. Arnold as one of the paddlers. The second link below has Herbert Bruce Arnold's grave in Waltham. There is also a picture of a canoe that appears to be covered in birch bark. Fun stuff,

Benson

Charles River Museum

The Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation celebrates American industry and innovation from the 19th century through the 21st century emerging in the Charles River watershed, and along "America's Technology Highway," Massachusetts' legendary Route 128.

www.charlesrivermuseum.org

Herbert Bruce Arnold (1866-1942) - Find a Grave...

Plot owned by Ivory Cousens Buried in the plot are: Hattie Coffin Myra D. Goodwin Marion W. Cousens Ivory Cousens Mary A. Cousens Herbert Bruce Arnold Isora Arnold H. Willard Gough Octavia C. Gough

www.findagrave.com

 

[chris pearson]

Very cool!!!

 

[Ben Fuller]

Two Robertson wood canvas from his post Old Town work, and an Arnold racing canoe in the Mystic Seaport collection. One of the Robertson's is decked with a couple of cockpits for the paddlers, used to paddle from New York city to PEI over a couple of summers. The Arnold came from the Swastika Canoe Club in Providence RI.

 

[Chuck Cossaboom]

Benson reached out to the Norumbega chapter and we went to have a look.
The canoes were stuffed in a craw space and covered with dust and some liquid from a pipe just above them. (Still telling myself it was just water)
We expressed concern about the storage and potential deterioration.
The CRM agreed to let us take them out to clean and evaluate. When cleaning the racing canoe we found that it had a Robertson stamp.
The canoes are drying as work with CRM to determine how much conservation they want us to do.
At minimum the racing canoe will need to be oiled since there is quite a bit of planking cracking from being so dry.
It will also need a thwart so if anyone has a Robertson racing canoe 30” and could send me a tracing of the thwart and how it attaches it would be appreciated.
Suggestions welcome.