Tappan Adney's Birchbark Models

[MyKneesHurt]

A few years ago I emailed the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Virginia, to ask if they would show me some of the 90-some birch bark canoe models made by Edwin Tappan Adney they have in storage there. It's been long enough that I've forgotten the name of the extremely kind and helpful lady that fielded my (wildly optimistic) emails and met me on site to view the models. I was allowed to pick several models to look at (they keep them behind closed doors and under ideal temp/humidity), and had a really great time looking at these fascinating little boats. I know the Museum has an official (and way more professional) picture book out, which is a companion book to "Skin Boats and Bark Canoes of North America", so these are my photos and in no way reflect the actual awesomeness of these canoes. A really cool opportunity; the workmanship on these things is extremely impressive.

Ojibway Longnose - maybe one of my favorite photos I've taken



Probably Miqmaq - note the carrying handle at the bow



Model of a tiny 8'8" Tete de Boule hunting canoe with paddle


Hull of a Malecite canoe with rough water "shoes" - two sets of overlapping slats, bow set on top of the stern set


Stem of a Malecite canoe. These hulls were stunning; as finely-shaped as racing canoes.

 

[Robin]

Thanks for sharing such an interesting event. I can only imagine the effort and skill required to build them.

 

[Benson Gray]

I have always liked the Malecite canoes and designs. The example above is also shown at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50828/50828-h/images/i099.jpg in figure 75 on page 83 of The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. The information at https://wcha.org/catalogs/penobscot/ has more detail about a similar Penobscot canoe in The Peabody Essex Museum which probably dates to the 1700s.

The decorated flaps on the ends are know as a wulegessis but I haven't found a recording on the internet with the correct pronunciation for this term. It doesn't appear to be listed in the Penobscot dictionary at https://penobscot-dictionary.appspot.com/entry/ so I would be interested if anyone has a better suggestion. Thanks,

Benson

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

That's a terrific find, @MyKneesHurt . Thanks for sharing your info and photos.

The decorated flaps on the ends are know as a wulegessis but I haven't found a recording on the internet with the correct pronunciation for this term.

According to Steve Cayard, the plural of "wulegessis" is "wulegesesek". I don't know how to pronounce either word.

Steve Cayard :: Birchbark Canoe Builder

Steve Cayard builds traditional Wabanaki style birchbark canoes in the tradition of the north eastern algonkian native peoples....

stevecayard.com

 

[Benson Gray]

According to Steve Cayard, the plural of "wulegessis" is "wulegesesek".

The Penobscot dictionary at https://penobscot-dictionary.appspot.com/entry/5046458797522944/ offers several different spellings but no pronounciation information.

Benson

 

[MyKneesHurt]

I seem to remember that wulegessis was a Malecite/Passamaquoddy word, but thirty seconds on the internet attributes it to Malecite/Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, and Abnaki/Wabenaki, these last two being sister dialects. (All four are variants of eastern Algonkin.) Steve Cayard says it's Malecite, and notes that it meant 'breechclout' or 'diaper'. There's every chance that the word spread between different groups, especially four cultural groups within the same language family, but I would expect to see at least some morphological drift between them. Should it be Penobscot the best I can do is this pronunciation guide.
I don't have Adney's book handy, but I'll check what he says about it when I get home, if no one has a copy nearby. Among a plethora of distinct words for canoe in an online dictionary, the closest I could get in Malecite is "wolek" - diaper, flap - that forms the root of 'wolekhesis' (spelling quoted from Adney). So 'wulegessis' could be in itself a synthesis or anglicization of words that in the early 1900's didn't have any sort of culturally-appropriate spelling, and you wouldn't have to work out the pronunciation because its been done for you. The same dictionary has 'masqewuloq' as a translation of 'birch bark canoe', so '-wuloq' may be a better etymological match than 'wolek'. But I'm a cabinetmaker not a linguist.

I saw Steve's Malecite canoe featured in the linked article when it was in Bar Harbor maybe eight years ago, and it was truly an impressive canoe; emphatically what I think of when I think of Malecite.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

for some reason my hyperlinks aren't showing up blue; "says it's Malecite" and "this pronunciation guide" are hyperlinks.

What color style are you using? Hyperlinks don't seem to colorize at all in Shades of Blue or Arctic and only as a very light green in Chestnut Green-Gray. It's the main bug of those three third party color themes. Hyperlinks show up well in Default Light, Default Dark, Shades of Grey, and Mocha Style.

 

[MyKneesHurt]

What color style are you using? Hyperlinks don't seem to colorize at all in Shades of Blue or Arctic and only as a very light green in Chestnut Green-Gray. It's the main bug of those three third party color themes. Hyperlinks show up well in Default Light, Default Dark, Shades of Grey, and Mocha Style.

I have no idea. Most of the screen is blue, so Shades of Blue sounds correct. I'll edit the edit if people can actually see them.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

What color style are you using? Hyperlinks don't seem to colorize at all in Shades of Blue or Arctic and only as a very light green in Chestnut Green-Gray. It's the main bug of those three third party color themes. Hyperlinks show up well in Default Light, Default Dark, Shades of Grey, and Mocha Style.

I have no idea. Most of the screen is blue, so Shades of Blue sounds correct. I'll edit the edit if people can actually see them.

Re hyperlink visibility, it doesn't matter to readers what color style YOU are using. What matters to them re hyperlink visibility is what color style THEY are using to read your message. There's nothing you can do about that.

To determine what color style you are using, just look at the bottom left of any page at the Style Chooser paint brush icon. It will say right next to the icon which color style you are in. If you want to change style, click the paint brush icon and make a different choice. If you choose Default Style, another icon will appear next to the paint brush icon, and that icon will let you choose Light Default, Dark Default or System Default. The Default styles are built natively into the code by Xenforo. The other five color styles are all third party add-ons.

 

[Benson Gray]

There appear to be a broad variety of spellings for this term, which is not unusual in translations. I got started down this rabbit hole by footnote 12 at https://wcha.org/catalogs/penobscot/ which says "Speck, op. cit., p. 61, found that these pieces were called, figuratively, 'diaper' or 'breechcloth' by the Penobscots at Indian Island." This led to Frank G. Speck's book Penobscot Man (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940) as shown below. He uses the term "wule'ge" which is probably close when pronounced phonetically.

This page also mentions that the head board or 'bulkhead is called wuni'gesu, "carrier" or "old woman" for some reason' which is another rabbit hole to chase down...

Benson