tour 10 of 10
Native North America: The Stonyhurst Collection
Photograph frame in the form of a trophy
This wooden trophy is designed in the form of a
photograph or picture frame. It was intended to sit on a desk,
mantelpiece or occasional table in a Victorian home to remind the
owner of a visit to eastern Canada. It stands like a
painter's easel with hinged back support, and is made up of
several miniaturized carved objects: a canoe, bows, a snow shoe,
fish spear and a pair of lacrosse sticks, all out of proportion.
They are Iroquoian, and the object might have been made either by
the Huron people, or in a Québec Mohawk
community.
A souvenir like
this would have been sold at shops in Montréal, Québec City and
perhaps at the Niagara Falls. It is a good example of the type of
object that was sent to international fairs or exhibitions as being
typical of Canadian work available for export. The export of
made-for-sale souvenirs goes back at least two hundred years, and
the exhibitions tried to stimulate the industry further. This
trophy, given to Stonyhurst College in 1887, may have been
displayed at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886. At
previous events such as the Great Exhibition in London in 1851
full-sized versions of the miniature objects that make up this
frame, including lacrosse sticks, snow shoes and canoes, were
shown. The Mohawk and Huron people sold all of these, among other
items, to the non-Native world and these businesses survived
through the twentieth century.