old canoe photo from moosehead lake maine

1905Gerrish

Loves Old Maine canoes
I would like to get some opinions of what type of canoe that is in the photo that I picked up on eBay. The canoe looks like a birch bark but I cannot see any seams on the outside of the canoe. The high ends of the canoe do not seem like the typical Maine birch bark canoe but the photo is very nice, detailed and old. The item # is 121316096675. Thanks in advance for the opinions!
 
Here they are:

$_57.jpg $_57a.jpg
 
I would like to get some opinions of what type of canoe that is in the photo that I picked up on eBay.

My guess is that it was made by one of the smaller canoe builders since I don't recall ever seeing anything like this in a manufacturer's catalog. The very high tips were popular as shown in the Belle Isle postcards below. Old Town had a version known as the MC model but it was never mentioned in any catalogs or other advertising that I have found. The tips have rotted away on the one shown below but you can get the idea. That looks like a great cabinet photograph,

Benson
 

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Eating lunch with national bark canoe icon, Ferdy Goode.......
His take on it is that it is a canoe built in the native style, sans birchbark. Native builders were known to use canvas once it was available to them. Tappan Adney's collection of models contained examples of such deviation from the norm.
Dave and Ferdy
 
Here is a page from a catalog of a manufactured canoe that looks very close!

Good memory Dave, that 1934 Thompson is similar and so is the Chestnut Indian Maiden shown below. I agree with Ferdy and the others who have suggested that the original cabinet photograph shows a native style canoe covered with canvas.

Benson
 

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Zack:
While touring the Canadian Canoe Museum yesterday with some old school classmates, we happened upon a canvas covered green canoe with high, sharply pointed stem tips somewhat similar to what is shown in your photograph. I asked Jeremy Ward, Curator, for some background info. Here is what he said:

"That green canoe is an Innu canvas canoe, made in the bark canoe manner. It was made by Mathieu Mestanapeo, Romaine River area, Quebec. Certainly a favorite boat of mine also. Are you familiar with the Museum of Man's Mercury Series publication "Canoe Construction in a Cree Cultural Tradition" by the late Garth Taylor? While set in Cree Quebec and not Innu Country, it's a great book on this method of construction. Our canoe was likely made in the late 1970's"

So, seemingly not as old as the one depicted in your photo, but those high stem tips do put one in mind of native bark canoes from Quebec. Just thought I'd pass this along. Didn't have a camera at hand yesterday, but Jeremy has kindly forwarded a pic which I have now posted below (reason for editing).

Cheers,
Roger
 

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