History

Explore presents the Hudson’s Bay Company - Part 4(3): Treasures of the fur trade

Episode 19

As a way of illustrating the importance of company fur traders to the 100-year-old HBC collection, curator Amelia Fay pulls out three items donated by Julian Camsell, HBC Chief Factor for the MacKenzie District in Canada’s Arctic 

  • Published Jun 26, 2020
  • Updated Apr 13, 2022
Three items donated to the HBC Collection at the Manitoba Museum by Julian Camsell, HBC Chief Factor for the MacKenzie District. Left to right: An ulu, antler-handle scissors from the western Arctic, and a muskox blubber pounder. (Photos courtesy the Manitoba Museum)
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In this final episode of Explore’s journey into the history of the Hudson’s Bay Company as it turns 350 years old, we take one last trip into the HBC vaults at the Manitoba Museum with curator Amelia Fay. 

As a way of illustrating the importance of company fur traders to the 100 year old HBC collection, Amelia pulls out three items donated by Julian Camsell, HBC Chief Factor for the MacKenzie District in Canada’s Arctic and father of Charles Camsell, founding president of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
 
Through these items, Amelia discusses how HBC fur traders played an important role in collecting not just cultural artifacts, but scientific samples as well — flora and fauna that wound up in museums and collections as far away as London and Washington, D.C.
 
We also hear an archival recording of Philip Scott Camsell, son of Julian, describing his father and his life in the Arctic in the latter half of the 19th century. 

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