To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).
Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Hudson's Bay Company (HBC)'
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 38 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Hudson's Bay Company (HBC).'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
Holmes, Donna Leanne. "Old company records: The effect of custodial history on the arrangement and description of selected archival collections of business records." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2008. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/23.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis takes up Terry Cook's idea that through their work, archivists are active shapers rather than passive keepers. In taking this idea further, this thesis discusses case studies comparing the custodial history of the records of four companies that were created in the seventeenth century. Consideration is given to how archival practitioners influenced the arrangement and description of the records of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the English East India Company (EIC), the Royal African Company (RAC) and the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) during critical periods of their custodial history.
2
Rigg, Suzanne. "Scots in the Hudson's Bay Company, c.1779 - c.1821." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2008. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU511840.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation examines Scottish involvement in the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), c.1779 to c.1821. It surveys the Company's recruitment practices, and the national and regional contribution of Scots to the HBC, demonstrating that Orkneymen were disproportionately numerous throughout the entire period under examination. This study explores their motivation for entry to the HBC, and the various routes (and obstacles) to advancement of salary and station. It also seeks to establish whether Scottish networks operated in the fur trade, and the utility of such connections. Although Scots encountered many opportunities for betterment in Rupert's Land, they were also confronted with the challenge of working in a commercially competitive and remote wilderness environment. Extreme climatic conditions, insufficient food/medicinal supplies, laborious work duties, and violent trade rivalry meant that illness, disability, and death were common occurrences. The extent to which the paternalistic directors endeavoured to mitigate such hardships, and tended to the welfare of employees and their dependents, is assessed. Finally, the social, cultural and economic impact of Scots on both their temporary and home residences is explored. This discussion includes the significance of 'Scottishness' in the fur trade and the importance of 'home' to temporary migrants. In addition, this study highlights the difficulties of remitting savings and domestic support money to dependents in Scotland, and the successes of employees who fulfilled their personal ambitions on their return to Orkney, and climbed onto the property ladder.
3
Paci, Andrea M. "Picture this, Hudson's Bay Company calendar images and their documentary legacy, 1913-1970." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp04/MQ57568.pdf.
Full text
4
Gregor, Allison A. P. "Going public, a history of public programming at the Hudson's Bay Company Archives." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/MQ62737.pdf.
Full text
5
Racine, Darrell Glenn. "Indigenous knowledge and collecting in the North American Northwest : an analysis of the Hudson's Bay Company." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.527369.
Full text
6
Honeyman, Derek. "Indian Trappers and the Hudson's Bay Company: Early Means of Negotiation in the Canadian Fur Trade." University of Arizona, Department of Anthropology, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/110077.
Full textAbstract:
The fur trade and arrival of the Hudson's Bay Company had numerous effects on northern North American indigenous populations. One such group is the Gwich'in Indians in the
northwestern portion of the Northwest Territories. Aside from disease and continued reliance on goods imported from the south, the fur trade disrupted previous economic relationships between indigenous groups. In some examples, the presence of the Hudson's Bay Company furthered tension between indigenous groups as each vied for the control of fur-rich regions and sole access to specific Company posts. However, due to the frontier nature of the Canadian
north, the relations between fur trade companies and indigenous peoples was one of mutual accommodation. This was in stark contrast to other European-Indian relations. This paper examines how credit relations between the Hudson's Bay Company and the
Gwich'in reveals a model of resistance.
7
Hawkins, Natalie. "From Fur to Felt Hats: The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Consumer Revolution in Britain, 1670-1730." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/31075.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation seeks to explore the wide reaching effects of the ‘Consumer Revolution of the Augustan Period’ (1680-1750) by examining the Hudson’s Bay Company from the perspective of the London metropole. During this period, newly imported and manufactured goods began flooding English markets. For the first time, members of the middling and lower sorts were able to afford those items which had previously been deemed ‘luxuries.’ One of these luxuries was the beaver felt hat, which had previously been restricted to the wealthy aristocracy and gentry because of its great cost. However, because of the HBC’s exports of beaver fur from Rupert’s Land making beaver widely available and therefore, less expensive, those outside of the privileged upper sorts were finally able to enjoy this commodity. Thus, the focus here will be on the furs leaving North America, specifically Hudson’s Bay, between 1670 and 1730, and consider the subsequent consumption of those furs by the British and European markets. This thesis examines English fashion, social, economic, and political history to understand the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Consumer Revolution, and their effects on one another.
8
Baker, Howard Robert. "Law transplanted, justice invented : sources of law for the Hudson's Bay Company in Rupert's Land, 1670-1870." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1996. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq23209.pdf.
Full text
9
Nigol, Paul C. "Discipline, discretion and control, the private justice system of the Hudson's Bay Company in Rupert's Land, 1670-1770." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 2001. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk3/ftp05/NQ64879.pdf.
Full text
10
Croll, Earla Elizabeth. "The Influence of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Exploration and Settlement of the Red River Valley of the North." Thesis, North Dakota State University, 2014. https://hdl.handle.net/10365/27356.
Full textAbstract:
As beaver became scarcer in the east, the quest for Castor Canadensis sent traders into the northern plains. Reluctant explorers, traders looked for easier access and cheaper means of transport. Initially content to wait on the shores of the Bay, HBC was forced to meet their competitors in the natives? homelands. The Red River Valley was easily accessed from Hudson?s Bay, becoming the center of the fur trade in the northern plains. HBC helped colonize the first permanent settlement west of the Great Lakes in the Red River Valley. Allowing white women and introducing cultivation into the area was a necessary change. The influence of the fur trade in North Dakota and of the Hudson?s Bay Company on the exploration and settlement of the Red River Valley cannot be overemphasized.
11
Cromwell, Robert John. ""Where ornament and function are so agreeably combined" consumer choice studies of English ceramic wares at Hudson's Bay Company, Fort Vancouver /." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/login?COPT=REJTPTU0NWQmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=3739.
Full text
12
Wynia, Katie Ann. "The Spatial Distribution of Tobacco Pipe Fragments at the Hudson's Bay Company Fort Vancouver Village Site: Smoking as a Shared and Social Practice." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/1085.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis represents one of the first systematic, detailed spatial analyses of artifacts at the mid-19th century Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver Village site, and of clay tobacco pipe fragments in general. Historical documents emphasize the multi-cultural nature of the Village, but archaeologically there appears to be little evidence of ethnicity (Kardas 1971; Chance and Chance 1976; Thomas and Hibbs 1984:723). Following recent approaches to cultural interaction in which researchers examined the nuanced uses of material culture (Lightfoot et al 1998; Martindale 2009; Voss 2008); this study analyzed the spatial distribution of tobacco pipe fragments for behavioral information through a practice theory approach (Bourdieu 1977; Ortner 2006). The analysis aimed to determine the role of tobacco smoking in the Village. It evaluated tobacco smoking as a significant and social behavior, the visibility of maintenance behaviors in the clay pipe distributions, and evidence of ethnic variation in tobacco consumption.
Spatial patterning characteristics were compiled from the few behavioral studies of clay pipe fragments (Davies 2011; Fox 1998: Hamilton 1990; Hartnett 2004; Hoffman and Ross 1973, 1974; King and Miller 1987), and indications of ethnic specific behaviors from archaeological and historical evidence (Burley et al 1992; Jacobs 1958; Jameson 2007). Distributional maps examined three pipe assemblage characteristics: fragment frequency, use wear fragment frequency, and the bowl to stem fragment ratio, to define smoking locations on the Village landscape. Visibility of maintenance and refuse disposal behaviors in the size distribution of fragments was measured through the Artifact Size Index (ASI) (Bon Harper and McReynolds 2011). This analysis also tested two possible indications of ethnic variation: differential use of stone vs. clay pipes, and consumption rates as reflected through clay pipe assemblages.
The commonality of tobacco smoking locations across the landscape suggests a significant, social, and shared practice between households. Analysis of maintenance behaviors and ethnic variation proved inconclusive. This study demonstrates the value of spatially analyzing clay pipe fragment distributions for behavioral information. The insight gained from examining multiple spatial patterns suggests future studies can benefit from analyzing the spatial distribution of diagnostic characteristics of pipes and other artifact types.
13
Dorset, Elaine C. "A Historical and Archaeological Study of the Nineteenth Century Hudson's Bay Company Garden at Fort Vancouver: Focusing on Archaeological Field Methods and Microbotanical Analysis." PDXScholar, 2012. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/869.
Full textAbstract:
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), a British fur-trading enterprise, created a large garden at Fort Vancouver, now in southwest Washington, in the early- to mid-19th century. This fort was the administrative headquarters for the HBC's activities in western North America. Archaeological investigations were conducted at this site in 2005 and 2006 in order to better understand the role of this large space, which seems incongruous in terms of resources required, to the profit motive of the HBC. Questions about the landscape characteristics, and comments by 19th century visitors to the site provided the impetus for theoretical research of gardens as representations of societal power, and, on a mid-range level, the efficacy of certain archaeological methods in researching this type of space. Documentary research related to the history of the HBC Garden was also conducted, including previous archaeology completed at the site. The results of these lines of inquiry are presented, providing insight as to the diverse roles this Garden fulfilled in the survival of the HBC in the region - as a commercial enterprise, as a microcosm of western societal practice, and in the health of its employees.
14
Holmes, Donna Leanne. "Old company records the effect of custodial history on the arrangement and description of selected archival collections of business records /." Connect to thesis, 2008. http://adt.ecu.edu.au/adt-public/adt-ECU2008.0020.html.
Full text
15
Hastings, Clifford D. "Mercantilism and laissez-faire capitalism in the Ungava Peninsula, 1670-1940 : the economic geography of the fur trade." Thesis, McGill University, 1985. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=63157.
Full text
16
McKillip, James D. "Norway House: Economic Opportunity and the Rise of Community, 1825-1844." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/20520.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation argues that the Hudson’s Bay Company depot that was built at Norway House beginning in 1825 created economic opportunities that were sufficiently strong to draw Aboriginal people to the site in such numbers that, within a decade of its establishment, the post was the locus of a thriving community. This was in spite of the lack of any significant trade in furs, in spite of the absence of an existing Aboriginal community on which to expand and in spite of the very small number of Hudson’s Bay Company personnel assigned to the post on a permanent basis. Although economic factors were not the only reason for the development of Norway House as a community, these factors were almost certainly primus inter pares of the various influences in that development.
This study also offers a new framework for the conception and construction of community based on documenting day-to-day activities that were themselves behavioural reflections of intentionality and choice. Interpretation of these behaviours is possible by combining a variety of approaches and methodologies, some qualitative and some quantitative. By closely counting and analyzing data in archival records that were collected by fur trade agents in the course of their normal duties, it is possible to measure the importance of various activities such as construction, fishing and hunting. With a clear understanding of what people were actually doing, it is possible to interpret their intentions in the absence of explicit documentary evidence.
17
Laudicina, Nelly. "Droit et métissages, évolution et usages de la loi à la colonie de la Rivière Rouge, 1811-1869." Thèse, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/23637.
Full textAbstract:
A l’arrivée des premiers colons eurocanadiens à Assiniboia en 1811, le territoire n’est encore qu’un terrain de chasse pour les grandes compagnies de commerce des fourrures, qui obéissent aux codes d’une lex non scripta propre au milieu et à l’économie des Territoires Indiens. La colonie dépend ensuite de la tutelle juridique de la Compagnie de la Baie d’Hudson, qui gère ses institutions gouvernementales, législatives et judiciaires à l’abri d’interventions canadiennes ou britanniques. Jusqu’à son annexion au Canada en tant que province du Manitoba en 1869, Assiniboia est le seul district de l’Ouest continental canadien doté de telles institutions. Cette thèse analyse l’évolution de la culture juridique de la société métissée de la Rivière Rouge (Assiniboia). A travers les sources des fonds législatifs et judiciaires de la colonie, les récits, correspondances et journaux de dirigeants, de missionnaires et d’habitants d’Assiniboia, ce travail observe les usages de l’outil juridique et ses effets normatifs sur les colons. Cette étude postule qu’un demi-siècle après sa création, la Rivière Rouge est un espace juridique hybride, où les lois coutumières coexistent avec celles du code civil de la colonie. Cette recherche démontre l’importante participation de la population à sa propre gouvernance et l’établissement progressif d’un pluralisme juridique, qui savait reconnaître et respecter les altérités sociales de la Rivière Rouge, où se rassemblaient des Eurocanadiens, des Autochtones et une majorité d’individus métissés et semi-nomades. Enfin, cette étude met en évidence le rôle fondamental des Métis et du métissage dans tous les processus de changements juridiques du territoire.
18
Mullaley, Meredith J. "Rebuilding the Architectural History of the Fort Vancouver Village." PDXScholar, 2011. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/502.
Full textAbstract:
In the mid-19th century, the Fort Vancouver employee Village was one of the most diverse settlements on the Pacific Coast. Trappers, tradesmen, and laborers from Europe, North America, and Hawaii worked and lived within a highly stratified colonial social structure. Their homes have been the site of archaeological research for nearly 50 years, but the architectural features and artifacts have received limited attention. Inspired by an 1845 description of the Village that described houses that were "as various in form" as their occupants (Hussey 1957:218), this study examined community-level social relationships in this 19th-century fur trade community through vernacular architecture and landscape. This thesis presents the life histories and layouts of five Village houses. The architectural analysis relied on data from features, square nails, window glass, and bricks. The resulting architectural interpretations were synthesized to explore the larger vernacular landscape of the Village and investigate whether the house styles reflect processes of creolization and community development, or distinction and segregation among the Village residents. The houses all stem from a common French-Canadian architectural tradition, built by the first employees at Fort Vancouver, but the life histories also revealed that the houses were occupied (and repaired) by a second wave of employees at some time during the 1840s. A reminder that Village houses deposits may reflect multiple owners, and should not be conceptualized as the result of a single household. Finally, this thesis demonstrates that nuanced architectural data that can yet be learned from past excavation assemblages when the many nails, bricks, and window glass specimens are reanalyzed using current methods.
19
Hodge, Adam R. "Vectors of Colonialism: The Smallpox Epidemic of 1780-82 and Northern Great Plains Indian Life." [Kent, Ohio] : Kent State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=kent1239393701.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.A.)--Kent State University, 2009.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed March 3, 2010). Advisor: Kevin Adams. Keywords: Great Plains; Native Americans; Indians; smallpox; disease ecology; Northern Plains; epidemic; environment; climate; warfare; Sioux; Shoshone; Mandan; Arikara; Hidatsa; Crow; Cree; Assiniboine; Blackfoot; horse; firearm; Hudson's Bay Company; traders; fur. Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-203).
20
Chabot, Cecil. "Cannibal Wihtiko: Finding Native-Newcomer Common Ground." Thesis, Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/33452.
Full textAbstract:
Two prominent historians, David Cannadine and Brad Gregory, have recently contended that history is distorted by overemphasis on human difference and division across time and space. This problem has been acute in studies of Native-Newcomer relations, where exaggeration of Native pre-contact stability and post-contact change further emphasized Native-Newcomer difference. Although questioned in economic, social and political spheres, emphasis on cultural difference persists.
To investigate the problem, this study examined the Algonquian wihtiko (windigo), an apparent exemplar of Native-Newcomer difference and division. With a focus on the James Bay Cree, this study first probed the wihtiko phenomenon’s Native origins and meanings. It then examined post-1635 Newcomer encounters with this phenomenon: from the bush to public opinion and law, especially between 1815 and 1914, and in post-1820 academia. Diverse archives, ethnographies, oral traditions, and academic texts were consulted.
The cannibal wihtiko evolved from Algonquian attempts to understand and control rare but extreme mental and moral failures in famine contexts. It attained mythical proportions, but fears of wihtiko possession, transformation and violence remained real enough to provoke pre-emptive killings even of family members. Wihtiko beliefs also influenced Algonquian manifestations and interpretations of generic mental and moral failures. Consciously or not, others used it to scapegoat, manipulate, or kill.
Newcomers threatened by moral and mental failures attributed to the wihtiko often took Algonquian beliefs and practices seriously, even espousing them. Yet Algonquian wihtiko behaviours, beliefs and practices sometimes presented Newcomers with another layer of questions about mental and moral incompetence. Collisions arose when they discounted, misconstrued or asserted control over Algonquian beliefs and practices. For post-colonial critics, this has raised a third layer of questions about intellectual and moral incompetence. Yet some critics have also misconstrued earlier attempts to understand and control the wihtiko, or attributed an apparent lack of scholarly consensus to Western cultural incompetence or inability to grasp the wihtiko.
In contrast, this study of wihtiko phenomena reveals deeper commonalities and continuities. They are obscured by the complex evolution of Natives’ and Newcomers’ struggles to understand and control the wihtiko. Yet hidden in these very struggles and the wihtiko itself is a persistent shared conviction that reducing others to objects of power signals mental and moral failure. The wihtiko reveals cultural differences, changes and divisions, but exemplifies more fundamental commonalities and continuities.
21
Gow, Ezekiel Hart. "The potato and the nail: reading the Fort Langley Post journals and Europeanization on the banks of the Fraser River 1827-1830." Thesis, 2017. https://dspace.library.uvic.ca//handle/1828/8442.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines through a micro-historical lens the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Langley and its early period (1827-1830) covered by the surviving post journals. Through a close reading and analysis of the journal entries, I will argue that the establishment of Fort Langley was part of a process of Europeanization, which was in turn expressed through the physical construction, the labour of the Langley contingent, and the ways that the H.B.C. servants interacted with new and existing foodways. I will argue that, although the journal entries provide only a limited window into the historical reality of Fort Langley’s early years, they are a useful source for understanding complex social, class, and racial relationships that permeated life and labour at Fort Langley. I demonstrate that even the crafting of a nail is a critical part of contextualizing the complex processes which would eventually form a distinctly European system of control on the banks of the Fraser River.Graduate
22
"Servants of the honourable company : work, discipline, and conflict in the Hudson's bay company, 1770-1870 /." Toronto (Ont.) ; New York ; Oxford : Oxford university press, 1997. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37559290r.
Full text
23
Purdey, Cheryl Ann. "Orkneymen to Rupert's Landers Orkney workers in the Saskatchewan District, 1795-1830 /." Master's thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10048/1030.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2010.Title from pdf file main screen (viewed March 26, 2010). "A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Dept. of History". Includes bibliographical references.
24
Stephen, Scott P. "Masters and servants: the Hudson's Bay Company and its personnel, 1668-1782." Thesis, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/230.
Full textAbstract:
During its long first century (1670-1782), the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) developed personnel practices not on the basis of abstract policy but by patching together experiments and expedients. Its initial vulnerability increased the value of loyal and experienced servants, and frequent shortfalls in wartime recruitment allowed old hands to demand and receive higher wages and gratuities. Peace after the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 allowed the Company to prune its payroll and to resume the carefully optimistic expansion that French attacks had interrupted in 1686. This required a larger labour force, but recruitment processes remained relatively unchanged from previous years (although Orkneymen became increasingly prominent). Expanding operations in the mid-eighteenth century imposed greater regularity on existing ad hoc methods of recruiting and retaining personnel, but labour needs did not expand rapidly enough to unduly strain those methods.
Increasing inland travel and trade after 1743 placed new demands on servants by requiring that ‘extraordinary’ labour become ‘ordinary’. The Committee discovered that this could only be done with ‘encouragement’, the slow pace of which hampered inland ventures into the 1780s. Inland operations changed the nature of HBC service and influenced the way master, factor, and servant interacted; they also illuminated the practices and assumptions which had been prevalent since Utrecht and probably before.
The HBC drew its labour force from the competitive labour ‘market’ of early modern Britain: the movement of men to and from the Bay was an aspect of domestic labour mobility. The relationship between the Committee and their employees was that of master and servants, heavily influenced by the circumstances of trading in Hudson Bay. Labour relations within HBC posts were framed by the dominant social construct of early modern Britain, the patriarchal household-family, made up of a master (the patriarch) and a family of kin, apprentices, and servants.
Men at all levels of the Company hierarchy could try to shape the reality of their HBC experiences, but did so in terms of commonly accepted ideals. Deferential behaviours and strong vertical ties existed alongside tension and negotiation: the Committee and their servants all understood the nature of ideal master-servant relationships, but they also had experience of the realities of life in various kinds of households. The Company’s servants internalized and practised the expected values of deference and submission, but did so without abandoning or deferring their own self-interest; indeed, they could use their mastery of the language to advance their own interests. The household-factory was the fundamental social unit of HBC establishments. Although membership changed, the institution maintained continuity over time. Furthermore, each household-factory was internally held together, and bound to other household-factories and to the London Committee by ties of patronage, brokerage, and friendship, that mediated the network of horizontal and vertical relationships.May 2006
25
Burley, Edith. "Work, discipline and conflict in the Hudson's Bay Company, 1770 to 1870." 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/3675.
Full textAbstract:
The Hudson's Bay Company is usually seen as a group of explorers and fur traders, an image reinforced by fur trade historians who focus on officers, native-European relations, women, and "fur trade society," while paying scant attention to the majority of the HBC's men who were labourers and tradesmen. The notion that trading posts resembled traditional households in which subordinate members were subsumed has come to dominate the discussion of HBC employees, thereby relegating them to the margins of Canadian history. Labour historians tend to ignore the HBC altogether. But, the posts and ships of the HBC were workplaces and, therefore, "contested terrain," as indeed was the pre-industrial household itself. The assumption, shared by the London committee and fur trade historians, that order and subordination were the norm in such traditional settings means that conflict and disobedience are considered almost aberrant and attributed to ethnic peculiarities. The HBC has thus come to be seen as a monolithic, paternalistic organization in which all members were united in a mentalite characteristic of the harmonious, pre-industrial society from which most of them were drawn. However, pre-industrial social relations were negotiated, not imposed from the top. This thesis rests on the assumption that such negotiation occurred in the HBC and explores this relationship for the period 1770-1870, a century of drastic change for the company. The HBC's archives preserve the journals, logs, and reports of unusual events, which officers and ships' captains had to submit, correspondence between them and the London committee, letters from HBC recruiters, petitions from servants asking for assistance or demanding justice, and a variety of personal letters. These records document the behaviour and views of both officers and servants and reveal that conflict was very much a part of life in the HBC. Regardless of ethnicity and like other workers, HBC men negotiated the terms of their engagements, retained customs and habits their superiors abandoned, engaged in private trade, were frequently disobedient and defiant, tried to control the pace and conditions of their work, and acted collectively to increase wages or oppose unfair treatment.
26
Paci, Andrea M. "Picture this, Hudson's Bay Company calendar images and their documentary legacy, 1913-1970." 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/2473.
Full textAbstract:
Between 1913 and 1970, the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) produced an annual calendar which it distributed free of charge through its department stores, fur trade posts, and various administrative offices. While quantities varied from year to year, on average the HBC sent out one hundred thousand of these calendars on an annual basis. Calendars, of course, are not unique to the Hudson's Bay Company. Mass-produced calendars first appeared in the United States in the middle part of the nineteenth century, and with advances in the printing trade and distribution networks, they quickly became popular tools in the advertising industry. Now catalogued in the Hudson's Bay Company Archives Documentary Art Collection, the Company calendar is a popular and often-used visual resource. This thesis undertakes an archival analysis of the HBC's calendars by examining the functional context of their creation. A review of the archival legacy of the Hudson's Bay Company calendars concludes with suggestions for enhancing archivalservices by employing a wider range of contextual information about these colourful visual documents. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
27
Harris, Geraldine Alton. "An archival administrative history of the Northern Stores Department, Hudson's Bay Company, 1959-1987." 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/7361.
Full textAbstract:
The provenance method of retrieving information from archival records has rarely been employed fully. The description of the provenance or institutional creator of records is often merely the name of an administrative department. This thesis emphasizes the importance of understanding how records-creating institutions function in order to understand their records and retrieve the information contained within them. In demonstrating a functional approach to provenance, this thesis provides an archival administrative history of the Northern Stores Department of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1959 - 1987. The Northern Stores Department operated for twenty-eight years during which time it ran over 200 stores in the northern and remote communities of Canada, often as the sole supplier of groceries and other essential goods. It had an important impact on the people of the North and is thus of considerable interest to researchers. The department developed out of the company's Fur Trade Department, which gradually expanded into the area of general merchandising during the 1940s. It was renamed the Northern Stores Department in 1959 to reflect the changing mandate... Chapter one provides a broad overview of the history of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1670-1959 with emphasis on the departmentalization of the company's activities and, specifically, the development of the Fur Trade Department. It was during this time that many of the activities undertaken by the Northern Stores Department became formal administrative areas. Chapter two provides a close examination of the department's mandate and administrative structure between 1959 and 1987. Emphasis is placed on the upper levels of management and those who played a significant role in shaping the department's administrative structure. Chapter three analyzes the purpose and activities of each of the administrative divisions within the department. This chapter provides a description of the functions of each of the administrative divisions and the department overall as the key to understanding its records. This information sets the records within their proper context and allows the user to interpret the information in the records in relation to this context. Furthermore, much can be inferred about the type of information in the records, and where this information might be found, based on knowledge of the functions of the department. It is this type of functional access to information that will open archival records to greater usefulness and easier access. A chapter on the records-keeping systems and the records of the department concludes the thesis. It again underlines the importance of functional access to archival records because the records-keeping systems of the department were structured upon a functional basis.
28
Nigol, Paul C. "Efficiency and economy : Commissioner C. C. Chipman and the Hudson's Bay Company, 1891-1911." 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/3719.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is a narrative account of the modernization and diversification of the Hudson's Bay Company during the years leading up to the Great War and during the tenure of Clarence C. Chipman as Commissioner of the Company's Canadian Operations. It explores the condition of the Company's business and the efforts of the management to place it on a more stable footing in all of its three branches which included the Land Department, Fur Trade and Saleshop Department. The Introduction develops the context of Canadian business at the turn of the century as well as providing a brief bibliography of some of the major works that have been published dealing with the Company during this time period. As well, a biography of C.C. Chipman is provided to explicate the Company's decision to place him in charge of the entire operation in Canada for twenty years. Chapters two to four are organized thematically dealing with the Company's various departments individually and chronologically. Since each department required different management methods and employees, a thematic method was useful in outlining Chipman's involvement in developing a viable business in each of the Company's branches and bringing modern business practices to the traditional Company of Adventurers Trading into Hudson Bay. Chipman's influence was felt in varying degrees in each department. The Fur Trade, which had been diminishing in importance to the Company in the years leading up to Chipman's tenure, continued to show poor returns in comparison to the Land Department. These are dealt with in Chapter 2 and Chapter 4 respectively. The Saleshop Department, or Chapter 3, delineates how Chipman proved to be instrumental in developing a large department store chain across the prairies and on to the west coast. The final chapter deals with what Chipman contributed to the management of the Company and why the Company's London Board decided to decentralize its operations and fire Chipman in 1911. Throughout this thesis, the Company and Chipman are dealt with in the context of developing a modern and competitive business in an age of extreme competition.
29
Stardom, Eleanor Jean. "Adapting to altered circumstances : Trade Commissioner Joseph Wrigley and the Hudson's Bay Company, 1884-1891." 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/3575.
Full textAbstract:
The post-1870 period was one of rapid change in Hudson's Bay Company history. Where it had once governed the vast expanse of Rupert's Land, in accordance with the original charter of 1670, the Deed of Surrender had reduced it to the status of a private company, forced to compete in an open market under the jurisdiction of the Canadian government. With the transfer of a major portion of its territory to the Dominion Government, the nature of the Company's trading operations altered significantly over the next decades. As the focus of attention shifted northwards to the fur resources of the distant Athabaska and Mackenzie River regions, the consequent spiralling transportation costs prompted attempts to streamline the entire fur trade system. Greater emphasis was placed on developing more efficient routes and adopting less labour-intensive methods of inland transportation, such as steamers, which enabled heavy cargoes to be moved at a fraction of previous costs. In southern regions, consolidation measures inaugurated by Governor Simpson were continued. Winnipeg was designated as the major depot, leaving York Factory and Norway House to function as mere trading posts serving the immediate district. On the prairies the surge of new settlers which followed the completion of the railway dramatized the potential of the Company's retail trade that was becoming an increasingly important part of its operations by the 1880's.
30
Esau, Frieda Kathleen. "Chipewyan mobility in the early 19th century : Chipewyan and Hudson's Bay Company tactics and perceptions." 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/29850.
Full text
31
Comeau, Martin. "Archives, historical climate records, and the climate observations of Thomas Corcoran, Hudson's Bay Company, 1827-1841." 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/7928.
Full textAbstract:
Growing interest in the natural environment has prompted important research into climate issues such as global warming and, more generally, into how humans interact with the environment. The information resources for this research are clearly important to its advancement. One primary source for climate researchers is the historical archival record. Archives hold massive amounts of information from so many different sources on so many subjects that the historical record in archives can overwhelm researchers. The archival profession thus plays an important role in helping researchers locate and understand these records. This thesis looks at the use of archival records in paleoclimatology, which is the study of climate before the general availability of written climate records. The first chapter provides a general overview of the different records that contain paleoclimatological information and some of the reasons why societies record such information. The second chapter expands on this overview by discussing in more detail the characteristics of particular archival records and the types of information paleoclimatologists seek in them. The final chapter examines some of the records created by Thomas Corcoran, a mid-nineteenth-century employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. His records are an important case example of climate information for that period. Finally, the thesis will suggest how the archival profession can help find and thus 'create' records related to climate. This new conception of the archivist's role suggests that the archivist is no longer a mere keeper of the records, but an active participant in record creation.
32
Simmons, Deidre A. "Custodians of a great inheritance : an account of the making of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives, 1920-1974." 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/7353.
Full textAbstract:
The Hudson's Bay Company Archives at the provincial Archives of Manitoba is indispensable for the study of many aspects of Canadian history. This thesis will survey the history of the company's management of its archives from the establishment of the company in 1670 to the transfer of approximately 120 tons of archival material to Canada in 1974. The major theme in this history is the dilemma of access which the archival holdings presented to the company in the twentieth century. Sustained company interest in its old records as formal archives does not emerge until the early twentieth century when the company recognised that its history was of increasing interest to scholars who wanted access to the records and that its history could also be a valuable popular marketing asset. The company began to provide proper archival management of its historical records and, in so doing, realised that it had a responsibility to act as custodian of records which were of considerable importance to those interested in Canadian history. At the same time the company was very cautious about allowing publication of information from its archives. It did not want uncontrolled access to what it still often thought was sensitive company information. This thesis deals mainly with the company's efforts to respond to its archival dilemma between the 1920s and 1974. During that time the company tried various measures to pursue the marketing and cultural goals it saw for its archives without granting unrestricted access. Gradually, however, it allowed more access to the archives. Indeed, by 1974, the company had resolved the dilemma and transferred custody of its archives to the Provincial Archives of Manitoba under liberal terms of access.
33
Friesen, Lisa. "Every requisite information : contextual provenance in the records of the Commissioner's Office of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1884-1910." 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/7927.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis explores the societal, administrative and recordkeeping contexts which influenced the creation of the records of the Commissioner's Office of the Hudson's Bay Company 1884-1910. The primary archival methodology in this study relates to the exploration of a record's context of creation, an approach which seeks to determine all facets of the provenance of the record. Chapter one details the history of the principle of provenance and contextual theory in archival thought, tracing its formative origins in the nineteenth century down to the postmodern approaches of the 1990s. The chapter outlines the different aspects of contextual exploration, including societal, administrative, recordkeeping and custodial histories. Chapter two explores some aspects of the societal and administrative histories of the Commissioner's Office. The chapter sets the office within the context of Canadian business history of the late nineteenth century, as well as pointing to the HBC's roots in British colonialism. Chapter three looks at another aspect of contextual analysis, recordkeeping practices within the Commissioner's Office. Through the examination of various Commissioner's Office records, the study attempts to show how the societal and administrative contextualities have influenced the creation of the office's records. Finally, the conclusion demonstrates how contextual analysis can be applied to archival practice, in particular through the Archives of Manitoba redescription project (known as Keystone) for the holdings of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives. Contextual analysis of records has proven to be a crucial tool in this project. Thus, archival theory asserts its practical place in the archives.
34
Geller, Peter G. "Constructing corporate images of the fur trade : the Hudson's Bay Company, public relations and The Beaver magazine, 1920-1945." 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/3605.
Full textAbstract:
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) has long held a fascination for those interested in the history of Canada, and has formed a subject of both popular and academic discourse. Less readily recognized, however, is the HBC's own contribution to the public perception of its image. In a variety of forums, the Hudson's Bay Company itself carried on a campaign to influence the interpretation of the company and its role in Canadian (and British) history and contemporary society. The commencement in 1920 of the publication of the company's magazine, The Beaver, offers an opportunity to explore the various images that the Hudson's Bay Company developed of itself, of its history, and of its relationship with native peoples. The "fur trade" was embraced as a convenient and salient symbol, in both words and pictures, becoming a focus for building up a glorious "official" history, as well as exemplifying the company's "progress" in the present. Although there was an ongoing fascination with forms of visual representation among company management, evident in the photographic documentation of the company's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 1920, the written text was the dominant mode of expression during the magazine's early years. Beginning in 1933, however, The Beaver began to exploit the possibilities of the visual record. These attempts to compose and maintain a company identity were related to expectations of the mass media in an increasingly visual culture, and reflected popular attitudes to the role of photography in the construction of meaning. Originally created as a staff journal, The Beaver's format and content were altered to appeal to non-company readers, forming part of a larger project of public relations. In the making of the company's magazine, the interaction between managenent, company policy and the editors and contributors allows for an examination of the ways in which corporate images were constructed, manipulated and transmitted, both to employees and to the public.
35
Teillet, John Vincent. "A reconstruction of summer sea ice conditions in the Labrador Sea using Hudson's Bay Company ships' log-books, 1751 to 1870." 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/1993/7175.
Full textAbstract:
The sailing ships' log-books contained in the Hudson's Bay Company Archives were used to reconstruct summer sea ice conditions in the Labrador Sea from 1951 to 1870. This reconstruction involved the development of an ice severity index, derived from a content analysis of the word roots and phrases in the ice descriptions, and the comparison of historic encounters with the presence of ice in the same sector in 1965. The icy severity index obtained for the Labrador Sea did not demonstrate a significant relationship with other ice severity indices derived for Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay. The ice severity index displayed some similarities to ice severity derived for other regions of the Labrador Sea. A highly significant volcanic signal was found in the ice severity index indicating a relationship between volcanic dust and the atmospheric circulation responsible for late ice retreat in the Labrador Sea. The number of icebergs sighted each year was also estimated for the period 1751 to 1870.
36
Vallance, Neil. "Sharing the land: the formation of the Vancouver Island (or 'Douglas') Treaties of 1850-1854 in historical, legal and comparative context." Thesis, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/7089.
Full textAbstract:
Chapter I introduces the Vancouver Island or ‘Douglas’ Treaties of 1850-54, entered into between several Vancouver Island First Nations and Hudson’s Bay Company Chief Factor, James Douglas, acting as agent of the Crown. The written versions purported to extinguish the aboriginal title of the First Nations to their land. Recent research has indicated that these documents do not accurately reflect what was agreed between the parties at the treaty meetings. The goal of the dissertation is to ascertain the likely terms of the treaties. This task also posed my major research challenge, as very little contemporaneous documentation exists of the formation of the treaties. There are a number of first- and second-hand accounts reduced to writing long after the events described, but they have received little attention from scholars until now. Chapter II is devoted to a critical analysis and comparison of the extant First Nation and colonial accounts, from which I conclude that the treaties were likely agreements by the First Nations to share not cede their land. Chapter III makes a comparison with first person accounts of the Washington or ‘Stevens’ Treaties of 1854-55, entered into between
vii
viii Native American tribes and the United States government. I conclude that these accounts
bolster the likelihood that the Vancouver Island agreements were sharing treaties. Chapter IV follows up on a fascinating connection between the written versions of the Vancouver Island Treaties and an agreement concerning land between the Ngai Tahu Moari of New Zealand’s south island and Henry Kemp, acting as agent of the Crown. The comparison provides a number of useful contrasts and parallels with the Vancouver Island Treaties. Chapter V describes the silencing of the Vancouver Island Treaties by the policies of successive governments, the inattention of scholars and the decisions of Canadian courts. Finally, Chapter VI reviews existing and potential categories of historical treaties between First Nations and the Crown. By analogy with treaty categories in international law and the work of political and legal theorists, I make the case for the Vancouver Island Treaties as examples of modus vivendi (interim or framework agreements).Graduate
2017-02-24
37
Melchin, Nicholas. "“How frigid zones reward the advent’rers toils”: natural history writing and the British imagination in the making of Hudson Bay, 1741-1752." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/2023.
Full textAbstract:
During the 1740’s, Hudson Bay went from an obscure backwater of the British Empire to a locus of colonial ambition. Arthur Dobbs revitalized Northwest Passage exploration, generating new information about the region’s environment and indigenous peoples. This study explores evolving English and British representations of Hudson Bay’s climate and landscape in travel and natural history writing, and probes British anxieties about foreign environments. I demonstrate how Dobbs’ ideology of improvement optimistically re-imagined the North, opening a new discursive space wherein the Subarctic could be favourably described and colonized. I examine how Hudson Bay explorers’ responses to difficulties in the Arctic and Subarctic were seen to embody, even amplify, central principles and features of eighteenth-century British culture and identity. Finally, I investigate how latitude served as a benchmark for civilization and savagery, subjugating the Lowland Cree and Inuit to British visions of settlement and improvement in their home territories.
38
Sellers, Marki. ""Wearing the mantle on both shoulders": an examination of the development of cultural change, mutual accommodation, and hybrid forms at Fort Simpson/Laxłgu’alaams, 1834-1862." Thesis, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/1828/3182.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis studies the relationships between newcomers employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort Simpson and the Ts’msyen people who came to live outside the fort from its establishment in Ts’msyen territory in 1834 until the founding of a Christian Ts’msyen village at Metlakatla in 1862.
I argue that a mutually intelligible – if not equally understood – world was developed at this site in which the lives of these newcomers and local Ts’msyen people became intertwined and somewhat interdependent. While this world was not characterized by universal conditions of fellowship and trust it did involve shared Ts’msyen-newcomer participation in significant cultural activities, the repurposing or remaking of each other’s customs, and jointly developed practices in which customs from both groups were intermingled. I propose that some of these practices, particularly those of law and marriage, can be considered as culturally hybrid.
This study suggests the compromised position of the HBC on the northern Northwest Coast, Ts’msyen cultural disposition, and dynamics of power within and between these groups fostered the development a mutually intelligible world and hybrid Ts’msyen-newcomer practices. Far from any centre of British power, greatly outnumbered by the Ts’msyen, and soon out-armed, the newcomers of Fort Simpson were particularly vulnerable. Ts’msyen people, it is claimed, generally valued innovation and had a long-established system for acquiring ownership of changes brought from outside into their communities. Ts’msyen women had a special role in this process. Moreover, both the Ts’msyen and the newcomers had hierarchically structured societies in which displays of power and authority were important. These local circumstances were fundamental to the formation of the hybrid institutions of marriage and law at Fort Simpson/Laxłgu’alaams and to the other complex social and cultural interactions of the two groups documented here.
While this study acknowledges that Ts’msyen and newcomer people had distinct motivations for entering relationships with each other, for sharing and cross-participating in customs of the other, and for developing new joint and hybrid practices, it argues that for both groups power and authority were crucial factors. The distinct circumstances which made a mutually intelligible world possible at Fort Simpson/Laxłgu’alaams came to an end in 1862. The return of smallpox in Ts’msyen territory, the removal of the missionary William Duncan and his followers from Fort Simpson to Metlakatla, and the increasing colonial regulation of Indigenous people brought an end to the brief period of accommodation and collaboration between HBC newcomers and Ts’msyen people.