Birch Bark Canoe
Louis Gill, Abenaki (Abnaki) / Canadian, 1856 - 1923
Abenaki
Wabanaki
First Nation
Northeast Woodlands
Woodlands
Dr. Gordon M. Day
early 20th century
Birch bark and wood
Overall: 168 1/2 × 32 5/16 × 12 5/8 in. (428 × 82 × 32 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Sinclair Weeks
162.27.14802
Geography
Place Made: Odanak ( Abenaki First Nations Reserve), Canada, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Transportation: Water
Research Area
Native American
Native American: Subarctic
Not on view
Label
The ocean and inland waterways of the Northeast make up an intricate highway system where travel by boat is an efficient way to journey long distances. The birch bark canoe is both an advanced work of technology—durable and watertight—and its own form of artistry. The bark of this canoe, made by Louis Gill of the Abenaki First Nations reserve Odanak, would have been carefully soaked, shaped, sewn, and sealed with a mixture of tree resin, charcoal and deer tallow (fat). The knowledge required to construct such a work and subsequently navigate travel routes blurs the division of water from land.
From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022
GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022
ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022
SART 16, Sculpture I, Matt Seigle, Spring 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022
SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022
Exhibition History
This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Luise and Morton Kaish Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 5–July 22, 2022.
Publication History
John R. Stomberg, The Hood Now: Art and Inquiry at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2019, p. 135, ill. plate no. 66.
Provenance
Made by Louis Gill, St. Francis for the Batchelder Club, Shawinigan, P.Q,; sold to Sinclair Weeks, Lancaster, New Hampshire; given to present collecction, 1962.
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