1881 Chippewa Birchbark Canoe

[hamstore]

We are in need of some advice, input or ?
We have a 125 year old birchbark canoe (complete story at www.hamiltonstore.com) which our firm has been retained to liquidate.

The question is: Just how rare are 19th century birchbarks?

It's one of the surviving canoes from Capt. Willard Glazier's 1881 Mississippi headwaters expedition.

Images are at either my website or www.greatrivercanoe.com.

Thanks, we appreciate your input.

Kurt Stoehr
HamiltonStore
Hamilton, MT

 

[beaver]

"Historic Canoe"

This is a very rare historic birchbark canoe!! The canoe is a 4thwart rice-harvesting canoe. With the documentation you have, it makes the canoe priceless!! Canoes of this age rarely live this long due to the organic materials of the canoe. They just slip away with time. Yours is a survivor. Please handle it carefully. The bark and roots are very brittle. When handling the canoe first spray it down with water using a spray bottle. This gives the canoe some flexability. It is also in dire need of a restoration. Included is an early photo of a 100 yearold Ojibwe canoe I restored in 1998. Ferdy Goode [URL="http://beaverbarkcanoes.blogspot.com"]http://beaverbarkcanoes.blogspot.com[/URL][URL="http://beaversss.blogspot.com"]http://beaversss.blogspot.com[/URL]

 

[Dan Lindberg]

Have you contacted the Minn Historical Society to see if they are interested?
They currently have a number of historical canoes and this one likely would fit in well with their collections.

Dan

http://www.mnhs.org/about/index.html