C1849 Peabody Green Passamaquoddy Replica

Long time readers of the blog will recognize my affinity for a special paddle in the collection of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology.  Item Number  99-12-10/53655 is a Passamaquoddy paddle featuring a green blade and decorative double curves added in white paint.

Peabody Number: 99-12-10/53655

Canoe paddle, elaborately decorated. Blade painted green, double curve motif.

Dimensions: Length: 180.5 cm, Width: 17.6 cm, Dep: 3.3 cm

Donor: Heirs of David Kimball (1899) 

Image Source Link

Discussions of this beautiful piece have been made in many posts over the years.  The lovely blade shape has been been the inspiration for many of my paddle creations, including the heirloom paddles for my two sons, my main  tripping paddle and a few others (posts here and here). 

Using an old piece of poplar stock, I decided to replicate the design again while trying to stay true to the original paddle's features. It was however scaled down to my preferred paddle length. The shaft was stained to mimic the aged wood in the museum photo and the blade painted with green Tremclad oil paint with the white decorative curves.

Given my clumsy nature with paints, the double curves ended up thicker than the original, but here is the final result...

c1849 Peabody Paddle Replica

This one will also be featured in the feature display for the WCHA assembly

More Photos of the "Green" Peabody Paddle

Thanks to WCHA members Rob Stevens and John Fitzgerald, I received some more photos of the Peabody Museum's current exhibit, The Legacy of Penobscot Canoes: A View from the River. In particular, John was able to get some very clear shots of the famed green bladed paddle I've gushed about over the years...

Photo Courtesy of John Fitzgerald

As mentioned previously, this paddle was documented by Adney and Chappelle and features a unique style grip. It is a long and tapered grip style that has been carved out in the center, giving the grip face a distinct concave face. You can just make this out on the top right corner of Fig 72 in Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

Fig 72: Adney and Chappelle
Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

Here is closeup of the grip that John F was able to obtain. It shows a very elegantly carved inner face of the grip and a small etched drip ring at the base.

Photo Courtesy of John Fitzgerald

Back in '08, I also experimented with a concave grip style used on a different bladed paddle. My carving out with a Mora spoon knife was certainly less elegant than this paddle, but I found the grip to be quite comfortable when paddling with the "Northwoods" style parallel hand grip. In my case, the base of the palm fit nicely in the carved out groove and that meant a more relaxed and natural hand position while paddling. After finally seeing a decent photo of this carved grip, I'm intrigued to experiment with this grip style again.

Thanks again to Rob & John for sending the photos my way. And for those of you lucky to be in the Peabody Museum's area, be sure to check out the exhibit which features some gorgeous displays of Penobscot canoe culture.

Peabody Museum - Green Bladed Decorated Paddle

Superb blogger of Indigenous Boats, Bob Holtzman, has posted some personal photos of canoe-related exhibits at Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Included in this display are some wonderful closeups of a favourite paddle design I've always wanted to see with my own eyes. It has served as the inspiration for my own cherry interpretations (posts here and here). It looks to the be the paddle illustrated in fig. 72 of  Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Adney sketched 1/2 of the blade pattern, included some dimensions and identified the paddle as a 71" long (180cm), maple wood Passamaquoddy dated to 1849.

Fig 72: Adney and Chappelle
Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

Despite the difficulty in photographing dimly lit museum pieces behind glass, Bob was able to get some shots of the paddle on display.

Image Credit: Bob Holtzman

Indigenous Boats

Image Credit: Bob Holtzman

Indigenous Boats

The paddle was captioned with the following info...

 "The blade of this elaborately decorated paddle is painted green. The double-curve design was executed by removing the paint while it was still wet. The stepped motif and crosshatching are suggestive of Penobscot or Passamaquoddy manufacture. The handle exhibits graceful carving and shows much indication of use." 

Until now, the only photo of this paddle I've seen was the official museum pic showcasing the white scroll design on the blade.

Canoe paddle, elaborately decorated. Blade painted green, double curve motif.  

Peabody Number: 99-12-10/53655 
Dimensions: Length: 180.5 cm, Width: 17.6 cm, Dep: 3.3 cm
Provenance: Donor: Heirs of David Kimball (1899)

Closer inspection reveals that that scroll pattern of the official pic and the display model are different. Now I'm wondering if the paddle is painted on both sides with slightly different scrolled patterns or if the museum has 2 distinct paddles in their collection.

Back in 2010, Bob also sent links and photos to some paddles at the University of Maine's Hudson Museum. It included a paddle with an attractive, segmented style grip.

Image Credit: Bob Holtzman

Indigenous Boats

Thinking the next paddle project (if it ever gets going) will be to replicate the Peabody museum paddle blade with the Hudson Museum grip style. A similar attempt in Sassafras was attempted in the summer of 2012 but if you follow through the posts you'll know it ended up in failure with a snapped shaft.

Chris Lowry's Painted Paddles

Chris Lowry of Ecotone Productions has a Flickr album of his woodwork, including some carved and hand-painted paddles.  Chris draws the designs in pencil freehand and then uses sharp tip wood burner to etch. The paddles are then painted with diluted oil paints and protected with spar varnish.

Photo Credit: Chris Lowry 

Source Link

Included in the set is a lovely painting of a Heron and realistic image of a snake wiggling its way up the blade.

Photo Credit: Chris Lowry

Source Link

Readers of the blog might notice the scroll pattern on one of the paddles as the famed c.1849 Green Passamaquoddy paddle in the Peabody Museum. Chris based this pattern on the hand drawn sketch by Liz Regan which appears in Warren and Gidmark's Canoe Paddles: A Complete Guide to Making Your Own. Below is the original paddle blade catalog photo...

Canoe paddle, elaborately decorated. Blade painted green, double curve motif.

Peabody Number: 99-12-10/53655 

Dimensions: Length: 180.5 cm, Width: 17.6 cm, Dep: 3.3 cm
Provenance: Donor: Heirs of David Kimball (1899)

Anyone interested in seeing this paddle in person are reminded that it is currently on display (until April 2016) as part of the Peabody Museum's exhibit, The Legacy of Penobscot Canoes: A View from the River. For those of us that can't make the journey to the museum, closeup photo's of the paddle blade and carved grip can be view in previous posts here and here.

Thanks to Chris for permission to repost his photos. Looking forward to future paddle art projects.

Peabody Museum Bark Canoe Exhibit

The Peabody Museum of Archeaology & Ethnology has a new exhibit featuring birchbark canoes and paddles. The exhibit entitled, The Legacy of Penobscot Canoes: A View from the River runs through April 30, 2016.

Their facebook page has some great photos of an interesting bark canoe purchased from Penobscot builder Francis Sebattis in 1912. It has the wonderful, graceful lines of canoes from this region and looks amazingly well preserved.  The single seat is also an interesting addition and looks to be woven with more natural material.

Penobscot / Eastern Abenaki Birchbark Canoe

Peabody Number: 29-33-10/98432

A search on the Peabody's online collections database reveals the following info:

 Canoe has a split-wood rush seat at one end (presumably making this end the stern) and 4 thwarts. The thwarts are mortised and tennoned and lashed with split root and nailed to the gunwales. The first thwart (from the bow) is parallel in form while the remaining three thwarts flare out at their ends. Inwales and outwales are secured with screws (and possibly nails) and split root lashing at regular intervals; the screw holes are filled with putty. (4 screw points are exposed iat the inwales, two screw points at the bow and two at the stern.) Wooden pegs are used to secure the gunwale caps to the rest of the gunwale assembly. There is a slot-head screw in the port side gunwale cap amidships.

Seats in bark canoes are rare in the first place and this is the first time I've seen a seat woven with such material. Might be an interesting project to replicate with left over strips of birchbark from a canoe build.

Also in their display is the green bladed decorated Penobscot paddle I've posted on many times before, including this recent post with photos courtesy of Bob Holtzman of Indigenous Boats. The museum's facebook feed has a small but updated photo of the blade's decoration  pattern.

Facebook Source Link

I'm hoping to carve and make another one of these paddles out of Sassafras this summer, but life keeps getting busier and busier . This year's extremely harsh winter wreaked havoc to our home and we have some major repairs to contend with before my paddle making hobby can resume again.

Sassafrass Penobscot Paddle Replica # 2

The last paddle project from back in the fall was a crudely cut Sassafras twin blank from making a replica of the  c.1900 Antique Penobscot Paddle. This particular blank was cut rather thin, resulting in a 1" shaft diameter. The opposite side of the blade also has a nasty looking knot but it shouldn't affect its use in the water.

Where we left off in the fall...

Unlike the actual replica made with a flatter grip style to match the original, I played within the design confines of this blank and left the grip area much thicker. It has a distinct spine down the middle and is dihedral in shape with a more comfortable bulbous top grip. Sassafras has a lovely golden colour when oiled. Here is shot while the grain was wetted for the final sanding phases.

Wet golden colour of Sassafras

Instead of using paint on this one, I wanted to do more negative pyrography where the bulk of the wood is charred so that golden colour could be emphasized in the form of more double curve motifs. I had already started the work with my tiny woodburning pen instead of using the shou-sugi-ban technique recently learned about so this new decorative method will have to wait until for the next paddle in the works (likely this one here)

This time, I took inspiration for the second side of the c1849 Green Penobscot paddle at the Peabody Museum. Readers might recall that for a while, the only photo of this paddle an official catalog shot showcasing the white scroll design on a single side only. I've used this pattern twice now.

Canoe paddle, elaborately decorated. Blade painted green, double curve motif.

Peabody Number: 99-12-10/53655 

Dimensions: Length: 180.5 cm, Width: 17.6 cm, Dep: 3.3 cm
Provenance: Donor: Heirs of David Kimball (1899)

Thankfully, this paddle was chosen to be part of the ongoing exhibit The Legacy of Penobscot Canoes: A View from the River (through April 2016) where the other side was put on display. This second side of the paddle blade has a different, more complex double curve motif which was captured by some online friends and sent my way.

Photo Courtesy of John Fitzgerald and; Rob Stevens

The blade shape on the original and my left-over blank are quite different, but I set to work, free handing some double curves inspired by this new pattern. The blurry picture below shows what I came up with before the burning process started.

Pattern Idea

A nice weekend of bourbon drinking and pyrography and this is the result so far. Still some touch-up needed here and there and some oiling, but with some lovely snowfall finally happening this winter, I took some photos outside.

Decoration so far

More pics to follow when this thing is finally oiled and hopefully being used in the spring.


July 2016 update: Paddle has been oiled. Check that short post here.

Historic Passamaquoddy Paddle - Part 1

About a month ago, I decided to get back to paddle making using a wood I hadn't used in a while - black cherry. The design I wanted to try came from Adney's book - an 1849 Passamaquoddy paddle decorated with a double scroll pattern on an elongated beavertail blade. In Canoe Paddles, there is a rough hand drawn sketch by Liz Regan of this very same pattern. A search revealed that the Peabody Museum also has a version of this paddle in their collection


Adney's sketch - Decorated Passamaquoddy on top


Peabody Museum paddle; Peabody Number 99-12-10/53655
I'm not the first person to try and replicate this paddle. Doug Ingram of Red River Canoe documented his version on his page on historic canoe paddles (UPDATE 2012 - unfortunately the original article is no longer online after switching internet servers). I ended up using Doug's image of the painted blade for my basic pattern.


Adneys's Illustration; Doug Ingram's paddle; Closeup of Blade
courtesy Doug Ingram - http://www.redrivercanoe.ca/
Instead of colouring the beautiful cherry wood with bright green paint however, my intention was to burn the negative image onto the blade, resulting in a look similar to the Fusion Paddle made last year. I also chose a different grip pattern than Adney since I had already put this style of grip on the Omer Birch. Instead, I used a stretched out Malecite grip that I've begun to favour. I free-handed a similar scroll pattern on the grip area. Burning the whole negative pattern on the paddle with just a tiny flow-point tip took a while, but I'm happy with they way it turned out.


Carved out paddle; Initial pattern; Completed blade
I was actually working on filling in the remaining portions on the handle section when my wife's water broke and the chaos of the little one's birth left this paddle in limbo. It's been in my den nearly complete for a while now and I'll always associate this paddle with the early delivery. Below is a shot of the incomplete paddle posing on a glorious Autumn day with the fall colours beginning in Toronto.

Incomplete paddle
Part 2 will be posted whenever I find the time to finish this one off.

UPDATE: November 20, 2008:: Paddle now complete - read Part 2

Peabody Passamquoddy Paddle Sketch

Came across a wonderful illustration of a paddle in an out of print children's book, Discovering Canada: The Fur Traders. It is another version of the c1849, green and white painted Passamaquoddy paddle at the Peabody Museum.

I've posted on this paddle many times before as it is the basis for the paddle in the header of the site and one of my favourite blade designs. Here is the version illustrated by Tappen Adney and the new one by illustrator A.G. Smith.


Adneys's Illustration


A.G. Smith's illustration

Preview of WHCA paddle display

I've been frequently mentioning the upcoming WCHA Assembly in Peterborough, Ontario taking place from July 17th to the 22nd. All of my paddle projects of late have been designs to form an outdoor display for this event. The display is now completed and will focus on  Historic Paddle Decoration to go along with my short presentation scheduled on July 21st.

For the display, I chose 10 examples of Woodland paddles previously discussed on this site which feature unique decorations as documented in historic artworks, manuscripts and museum collections. It needed to be portable for transportation so I started off with a metal sawhorse with collapsible legs. I have a set previously used to make a pair of elevated canoe cradles (post here).

Mastercraft folding metal sawhorse

A four foot piece of 1x10 pine was bolted on top and 10 little paddle stations were drilled out with a large spade bit. I also made a backing of sorts with some wood scraps on hand and painted the thing with excess black paint collecting dust in the basement supply.

Sturdy base with room for 10 paddles

Two, 2'x4' hardboard panels were used for the upper display and attach at the base with bolts and wing nuts for easy tightening. The boards were also painted black to serve as a backdrop. Images of various historic paintings were printed on thick cover paper, glued onto bits of scrap wood and then sealed with a slightly glossy varnish. These art panels were then attached to the hardboard with some industrial Velcro so they can be removed and reattached for transportation. Some of the art pieces were mounted on thick wood others on thin stock so they give the display a bit of a 3D feel. Hopefully, these will add some interesting context to the visitor.

Small panels of Historic Artworks

My two page article on the Schoolcraft paddle (Wooden Canoe - Issue 205, Vol. 41 No.1) has been put into a protective glass frame that can be removed and read for anyone who might be interested. Here is the final display all set up...

Completed display of 10 Historic Paddles

The 10 paddles selected for the display (left to right) are:
• Codex canadensis paddle
• circa 1750-1780 Algonquin Paddle
• Davies' paddle from 1788
• 1820 Schoolcraft Paddle
• McCord Museum Eastern Woodlands Replica
• circa 1850 CMC Eastern Woodland Paddle
• circa 1850 Mi'kmaq paddle from Anonymous
• Krieghoff paddle from Indian Wigwam in Lower Canada
• 19th century "Delaware" paddle
• Green Passamaquoddy paddle (Peabody Museum)

If any readers are planning to attend the Assembly, feel free to drop by to check out the display and say hi!