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Toronto Star
03-05-2025
- Business
- Toronto Star
Hudson's Bay Company records give public chance to ‘reconnect' with ancestors
WINNIPEG - Dyana Lavallee stares at a copy of a photograph on display to the public at the Hudson's Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg. The Metis woman quickly recognizes it as the same one her grandmother had years ago. 'This is my family,' she said referring to the figures in the picture. 'I'm actually shaking a bit.' ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW It's not the first time Lavallee has visited the archives, but it is the first time she's seen that photo among the thousands of historical documents that are housed at the Archives of Manitoba. The collection, which is owned by the province, features items including the company's first minutes book from 1671, historical maps, videos, audio recordings and so many diaries, letters and research notes that the textual records alone take up more than 1,500 linear metres of shelf space. Hudson's Bay donated the collection to the province in 1994. On Friday, the archives opened its doors to the public to celebrate the 355th anniversary of the company's beginnings, and as North America's oldest corporation is facing its demise. Hudson's Bay filed for creditor protection in March after it could no longer pay its bills due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an intensifying trade war and depressed store traffic. Amid store liquidation and a hunt for buyers for the business and its assets, the company has been given permission by an Ontario judge to auction off the 4,400 artifacts and art pieces in its possession, including the 355-year-old royal charter that launched the company. None of the items in the provincial archives are included in the auction. Since news of The Bay's plans to auction artifacts, archivists, historians and First Nations groups have been calling for the pieces to be returned to Indigenous nations or be given to public institutions where they will be available for all to see. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Lavallee, who works in the Manitoba Metis Federation's Culture and Heritage department, agrees. 'It doesn't make sense to me to lock someone else's history away for personal use,' she said. 'It helps people reconnect with their ancestry. It gives them answers to their past.' Lavallee has been able to use the Hudson's Bay Company Archives to learn more about her ancestor James Bird, a high-ranking officer with the company who was born in England and settled in what is now known as Canada. Kathleen Epp has seen the value in making records accessible to the public. 'There are different questions asked of the records every year, so they stay alive in a way,' said Epp, who is the keeper of the province's Hudson's Bay Company Archives. 'People come with questions that (the company) never would have envisioned when they created the records, and they find value in whatever they're studying and in the answers that they find.' Not only has Epp seen the records used to trace genealogy, but also to study climate change because trading posts often recorded the weather, and animal populations were tracked by visiting and documenting trap lines. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Epp and her team are working to breathe new life into the company's records on Indigenous Peoples. The archives include photographs from Nunavut and Northwest Territories, and the team is trying to identify the people taken in the historical photos. There are also account books that document trading with Indigenous Peoples. 'Those account books often give the names of people but also it may be the Indigenous name or it may show how names changed over time,' she said. 'There's actually quite a lot of genealogical information there for people to trace their families but also to trace names.' First Nations groups have asked for a halt to the auction so that cultural, ceremonial or sacred items in The Bay's collection may be returned to the communities that they belong to. The Bay is expected to return to court at a later date to detail exactly what items beyond the royal charter it wants to sell and how the auction process will unfold.
Winnipeg Free Press
02-05-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Hudson's Bay Company records give public chance to 'reconnect' with ancestors
WINNIPEG – Dyana Lavallee stares at a copy of a photograph on display to the public at the Hudson's Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg. The Metis woman quickly recognizes it as the same one her grandmother had years ago. 'This is my family,' she said referring to the figures in the picture. 'I'm actually shaking a bit.' It's not the first time Lavallee has visited the archives, but it is the first time she's seen that photo among the thousands of historical documents that are housed at the Archives of Manitoba. The collection, which is owned by the province, features items including the company's first minutes book from 1671, historical maps, videos, audio recordings and so many diaries, letters and research notes that the textual records alone take up more than 1,500 linear metres of shelf space. Hudson's Bay donated the collection to the province in 1994. On Friday, the archives opened its doors to the public to celebrate the 355th anniversary of the company's beginnings, and as North America's oldest corporation is facing its demise. Hudson's Bay filed for creditor protection in March after it could no longer pay its bills due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an intensifying trade war and depressed store traffic. Amid store liquidation and a hunt for buyers for the business and its assets, the company has been given permission by an Ontario judge to auction off the 4,400 artifacts and art pieces in its possession, including the 355-year-old royal charter that launched the company. None of the items in the provincial archives are included in the auction. Since news of The Bay's plans to auction artifacts, archivists, historians and First Nations groups have been calling for the pieces to be returned to Indigenous nations or be given to public institutions where they will be available for all to see. Lavallee, who works in the Manitoba Metis Federation's Culture and Heritage department, agrees. 'It doesn't make sense to me to lock someone else's history away for personal use,' she said. 'It helps people reconnect with their ancestry. It gives them answers to their past.' Lavallee has been able to use the Hudson's Bay Company Archives to learn more about her ancestor James Bird, a high-ranking officer with the company who was born in England and settled in what is now known as Canada. Kathleen Epp has seen the value in making records accessible to the public. 'There are different questions asked of the records every year, so they stay alive in a way,' said Epp, who is the keeper of the province's Hudson's Bay Company Archives. 'People come with questions that (the company) never would have envisioned when they created the records, and they find value in whatever they're studying and in the answers that they find.' Not only has Epp seen the records used to trace genealogy, but also to study climate change because trading posts often recorded the weather, and animal populations were tracked by visiting and documenting trap lines. Epp and her team are working to breathe new life into the company's records on Indigenous Peoples. The archives include photographs from Nunavut and Northwest Territories, and the team is trying to identify the people taken in the historical photos. There are also account books that document trading with Indigenous Peoples. 'Those account books often give the names of people but also it may be the Indigenous name or it may show how names changed over time,' she said. 'There's actually quite a lot of genealogical information there for people to trace their families but also to trace names.' First Nations groups have asked for a halt to the auction so that cultural, ceremonial or sacred items in The Bay's collection may be returned to the communities that they belong to. The Bay is expected to return to court at a later date to detail exactly what items beyond the royal charter it wants to sell and how the auction process will unfold. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2025.
Winnipeg Free Press
28-04-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Hudson's Bay artifacts would be at home with prior Manitoba donations: archivists
Manitoba archivists caring for hundreds of thousands of Hudson's Bay artifacts are hopeful the company's most prized possession will wind up in public hands and it's possible they have just the spot for the treasure. Those looking after collections Hudson's Bay donated in 1994 to their employers — the Manitoba Museum and the Archives of Manitoba — say the 1670 charter that birthed Canada's oldest company would be right at home with their other artifacts. 'We know exactly where it belongs in our system,' Kathleen Eep, keeper of the province's Hudson's Bay Co. archives. The provincial collection features items including maps dating back to 1709, videos, audio recordings and so many diaries, letters and research notes that textual records alone take up more than 1,500 linear meters of shelf space. 'We think of (the charter) as part of our records in a way already because … we've got the rest of the story and so we feel like it makes sense for the charter to be here and to be as publicly accessible as any of the other records,' Eep said. Talk of where the royal charter signed by King Charles II could wind up has been intensifying since Hudson's Bay filed for creditor protection last month, when it said the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an intensifying trade war and depressed downtown traffic made covering its bills too difficult. Amid store liquidations and a hunt for buyers for the business and its assets, the company announced it's planning an auction for its 1,700 art pieces, 2,700 artifacts and the 355-year-old charter. That plan has faced opposition from historians, archivists and Indigenous groups who fear it would send priceless artifacts to the walls of millionaires, keeping them out of public sight. But the auction to be run by Heffel Gallery allows items to be removed from the process if they are found to be owned by others or have historical or cultural significance, making them inappropriate for a sale. The provision forms a glimmer of hope that the charter or other artifacts could head back to Manitoba, where Hudson's Bay moved its headquarters after departing England. 'It is such an important founding document. I don't think it belongs in private hands,' said Eep. 'It should be publicly available. It would be a shame to me if it wasn't preserved in that way.' Amelia Fay, curator of the HBC Museum Collection at the Manitoba Museum, feels similarly. 'Our ultimate goal is to ensure things are publicly accessible,' she said. 'This is shared history for all Canadians and folks abroad.' When asked whether her museum wants Bay artifacts or the charter that visited for an exhibition in 2020, she said, 'I can't really speak to that at the moment, but it's something we always consider.' 'The collection isn't stagnant,' she said of the 27,000 items she presides over. 'Even though it came to us as kind of an entity in the 90s, it's continued to grow since then and we're still accepting donations from descendants of fur traders and other individuals with connections to the company. We're always kind of open to adding to the collection of particularly significant pieces of history and particularly things that are significant to Manitobans.' Acquiring an item like the royal charter, which as well as creating the company also allowed Hudson's Bay to rule over much of Canada and shape the country's economy for decades, is no easy lift for a museum. Experts expect the charter to fetch a pretty penny and require donor help for any institution to acquire. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has said he won't rule out the province getting involved but hoped the company would turn its pieces over to the public. 'Why don't they just make sure that these things that matter to the Canadian people, to Canadian history, to First Nations, Indigenous people … fall into the hands of the public?' he said Friday. Asad Moten, a lawyer representing the attorney general of Canada and several other federal government bodies, has told a court the country may have interest in acquiring some items in the collection or even ensuring their cultural significance is not diminished and they are not 'broken apart.' First, he says the country needs to know what Hudson's Bay has squirreled away. While it has yet to reveal the contents of its collection, a source familiar with the auction process, who was not authorized to speak publicly, has told The Canadian Press the items proposed to be auctioned off include paintings dating back to 1650, point blankets, paper documents and even collectible Barbie dolls. To get a sense of the value that lies in what Hudson's Bay owns, one need only look at how previous item donations are being used. Academics turn to the collection at the Manitoba Museum for research. Fay says she's seen a resurgence in interest in First Nations and Metis bead and quillwork from artists looking to items their ancestors made for inspiration. During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. Eep has seen Hudson's Bay documents used to study climate change because trading posts often recorded the weather. Some archival material has also bolstered land claims or traced genealogy. The Hudson's Bay leaders who created the records centuries ago 'weren't thinking people might be interested to know how the original Indigenous name of this family changed over time, which we can demonstrate with the records, but that's not why they kept them,' Eep said. 'They kept them because they were keeping track of their customers, so the records have provided such a wealth of information, and it's used in so many different ways.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2025.
