Historic Photo: Sault St. Marie Poling Rapids

From this Ebay seller comes a steroview photo of a man poling up the rapids near Sault Ste. Marie. Just behind the poler is a paddle resting on the thwarts. The stout paddle shaft has a short, flattened bobble style grip ending.

Title: 7992 Breasting rapids at Sault Ste. Marie with an Indian guide 

Underwood & Underwood, New York, London, Toronto, Ottawa

Unfortunately, there is no date associated with the photo description, but the photographic company,
Underwood & Underwood, were major publishers of stereoscopic photos until 1920.

Historic Paddle Photo: Matt Bernard - Pikwàkanagàn FN Bark Canoe and Paddle

Illustrated Forest and Outdoors (January 1947) from the Canadian Forestry Association featured a 1 page article showcasing the bark canoe building of Matt Bernard of Golden Lake, Ontario  (now known as Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation).

Source Link

The canoe and image look similar to the photo in the virtualmuseum.ca online exhibit Canoe Builders of Pikwàkanagàn where a better photo of the paddle profile is shown.

MATTHEW BERNARD AN EXPERT AT PADDLING

Location: Pikwakanagan Indian Reserve, Golden Lake, Ontario

Source Link

Hopkins: Listing of Voyageur Art Work

Jeanne Doucette's blog post MÉTIS THROUGH THE EYES OF A LADY features most of the canoe-related artwork of Frances Anne Hopkins. Worth a look to see the images collected into one place. Clicking the image below will take you to the post.

Historic Paddle Photo: Grand Lake New Brunswick

From the Maliseet Album of  Native North American Indian - Old Photos...

Direct Source Link

Direct Source Link

c1860 St. John Maliseet Paddle Replica - Part 1

A long time in the making but finally got around to starting another vintage replica. This one was based on circa 1860 paddle collected in the St. John River area of New Brunswick. It appeared in the Stair Galleries auction site (May 23, 2009 Past Auction catalogue - Lot # 110).


NORTHEASTERN WOODLANDS (Malecite?) CANOE PADDLE
Circa 1860
5 ft. 3 3/4 in.
Maple
Estimate : $700 - $900
Realized : $2,500
This paddle was collected in the St. John's River area of New Brunswick, Canada. Floral designs are incised on the top. 

The paddle was also featured in a long out of print exhibition catalogue - Pleasing the spirits : a catalogue of a collection of American Indian art by Ewing, Douglas C (1982) - plate 474. Luckily one copy of this out of print exhibit catalogue was available at the Toronto Reference Library where I went to find some extra information. The black and white pics included a closeup of the floral carving details etched on the grip of the not featured on the auction images.


Basic Floral Etchings on grip

The original was made from some beautiful Birdseye but I was only able to source out some plain soft maple. Still progress is being made. Here is the paddle with the blade and grip being worked on...