Miniature Canoe

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This miniature birch bark and porcupine quill embroidered canoe belongs to the Seneca Iroquois National Museum in present day Western New York. It is unlikely that the object was made by the Seneca based on its form and design, though its origins are unknown.

It is most likely that this object was created for the tourist trade around Niagara Falls based on its small size and non-ceremonial embroidered design. Commonly, the Algonquian people constructed miniature canoes like this for tourist trade in Canada and the Niagara region (Stahlman, 2019).

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The birch bark was stable and in good condition overall, though large areas of quillwork were lost or unstable.

Treatment included cleaning the object of dust and grime, stabilizing the exiting quills, as well as creating "reproduction" quill patches to fill in the lost embroidered design.  This was done by painting new ethically-sourced quills, adhering them to a Japanese tissue "backing" which was then glued to the canoe. The materials used in this treatment aimed to compliment the objects original materials and the implemented techniques allow for complete reversal if needed in the future.