Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America: Material Culture in Motion, c.1780 - 1980 (Volume 32) (McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation Studies in Art History)

"Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America explores how close, collaborative looking can discern the traces of contact, exchange, and movement of objects and give them a life and political power in complex cross-cultural histories. Red River coats, prints of colonial places and peoples, Indigenous-made dolls, and an Englishwoman's collection provide case studies of art and material culture that correct and give nuance to global and imperial histories. The result of a collaborative research process involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors, this book looks closely at the circumstances of making, use, and circulation of these objects: things that supported and defined both Indigenous resistance and colonial and imperial purposes. Contributors re-envision the histories of northern North America by focusing on the lives of things flowing to and from this vast region between the eighteenth and the twentieth centuries, showing how material culture is a critical link that tied this diverse landscape to the wider world. An original perspective on the history of northern North American peoples grounded in things, Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America provides a key analytical and methodological lens that exposes the complexity of cultural encounters and connections between local and global communities."-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Object Lives and Global Histories in Northern North America 2 Title 6 Copyright 7 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Maps 12 Introduction 24 1 Object Lives: Innovating Methodology 47 SIDEBAR 1 Management and Methodology 74 2 Crossing Worlds: Hide Coats, Relationships, and Identity in Rupert’s Land and Britain 76 3 “A Typical Canadian Outfit”: The Red River Coat 103 SIDEBAR 2 The Huron-Wendat Capot 129 SIDEBAR 3 The Red River Coat and Its Commercial Promotion 133 4 Colonizing Winter: Tobogganing, Toboggan Suits, and Imperial Agendas in the Northlands, c. 1800–1900 136 SIDEBAR 4 Gifts of Empire 166 5 Peter Rindisbacher and the Imagined North: Circulations, Realities, and Representations 170 6 The Wampum and the Print: Objects Tied to Nicolas Vincent Tsawenhohi’s London Visit, 1824–1825 197 SIDEBAR 5 Active Imperial Networks 221 7 A Brief History of a Complicated Sweater: Appropriation, Arctic Sovereignty, and Postwar Winter Fashion 224 8 Clare Sheridan: British Writer, Sculptor, and Collector in Blackfoot Country, 1937 249 9 Dolls, Women’s Art, and Indigenous Networks in the Borderlands of Northern North America, 1885–1945 282 10 Dew Claw Bags, Indigenous Women, and Material Culture in History and Practice 310 11 Inscribing the North West: Hide Jackets and Colonial Surveyors 333 SIDEBAR 6 Jackets in Circulation 363 12 From the Sanatorium to the Museum and Beyond: The Circulation of Art and Craft Made by Indigenous Patients at Tuberculosis Hospitals 367 Figures 398 Bibliography 402 Contributors 440 Index 444 An original perspective on the history of northern North American peoples grounded in things, this book explores how close, collaborative looking can discern the traces of contact, exchange, and movement of objects and give them a life and political power in complex cross-cultural histories.