Birch Bark Canoes from the Carleton Canoe Company?

[Benson Gray]

Does anyone know of an old birch bark canoe with any indication that it came from the Carleton Canoe Company? The Seeger and Guernsey's Cyclopædia from 1899 lists Carleton as a source for these. The Thomas’ Registers from 1905 and 1909 along with the Hendricks’ Commercial Registers from 1910 do as well. All of these are shown below. I've not found a reference to Carleton offering birch bark canoes in any of their catalogs or other advertising. My guess is that they may have just been reselling some birch bark canoes that had been made by the Penobscots. Many of their baskets and other crafts were distributed this way as shown at https://forums.wcha.org/attachments/13521/ for example. Please let me know if I have missed something. Thanks,

Benson

 

[Benson Gray]

It appears that Louie Peol Sock (1823-1907) is one of the most likely candidates to have been building bark canoes for Carleton. The link below probably shows him with one of his canoes, although this identifies him as Louis Pielsok. The pictures show how he identified his canoes on the thwart.

Benson

Louis Pielsok and two boys sitting with birchbark canoe (PM# 96-22-10/50820); logs floating in the Penobscot River

collections.peabody.harvard.edu

 

[Rollin Thurlow]

Is this canoe the one in the Peabody museum? It looks like a canoe design that E.M. White would copy.

 

[Benson Gray]

Is this canoe the one in the Peabody museum?

No, one is at the Canadian Canoe Museum and the other is at the Seymour Historical Society. The links below have more details.

Benson

What’s in a name?

By Liz Watkins, Collections Assistant Have you ever given a favourite object a name? Think of items from significant moments in your life – perhaps a favourite toy or your […]

canoemuseum.ca

Canoe crafted in 19th century donated to Seymour Historical Society

SEYMOUR >> A birch wood canoe created in the 1880s now has a permanent home in the Seymour...

www.nhregister.com

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