Birch Bark Artistry: A Passamaquoddy Canoe Model

This historic birch bark canoe model (now sold) was created circa 1890-1910 by Passamaquoddy artist Joseph Nicholas.

Like many members of Native tribes across the U.S. and Canada, Joseph Nicholas supplemented a subsistence-level income by making and selling objects such as this canoe model to non-Native locals and tourists.

Skilled craftspeople such as Nicholas created both souvenir versions of objects representing their own material culture (e.g., model canoes, paddles, birch bark quivers, etc.), and household accessories that were tailored to non-Native tastes and lifestyles (e.g., log carriers, wastepaper baskets, collar boxes, letter holders, etc.).

A Wabanaki family set up to sell crafts to tourists in Bar Harbor, Maine, circa 1885 (*photo*: *mainememory.net*)

For both categories of goods, Native artists used traditional materials and techniques, as Nicholas did to create an accurate model replica of a full-size Passamaquoddy birch bark canoe.

A Passamaquoddy birch bark canoe that was paddled from Maine to Massachusetts for the Plymouth Tercentenary Celebration in 1921. Note the model canoe sitting on the stern thwart where it was perhaps displayed for sale. The tribal members are dressed as their forebears would have been. L-R: William Neptune (Passamaquoddy), Horace Nicholas (Passamaquoddy), Clara Neptune (Penobscot), Joseph Neptune (Penobscot) (*photo*: *Pinterest.com*)

Birch bark canoes would have still been in use when Joseph Nicholas made his canoe models, so he would likely have had experience making full-sized canoes as well.

A Passamaquoddy canoe built by Sylvester Gabriel heading from Pleasant Point, Maine to Plymouth, Massachussetts for the Plymouth Tercentennial. Paddlers William Neptune (stern) and Horace Nicholas (bow) are dressed in attire from an earlier era.(*photo and caption details*: *iroquoisbeadwork.blogspot.com*)

Nicholas’s canoe model replicates the slightly curved profile of the stems of the canoes in the above photos, which was the characteristic shape of Passamaquoddy canoes starting in the mid-1800s when they transitioned from earlier canoe designs that had more outward pointing stems.

In this 23” model canoe, as in full-size canoes, the dark, resilient inner bark of the white birch tree forms the exterior of the canoe. (See more details and illustrations about birch bark canoe making in our earlier Journal article.)

This model also has other traditional birch bark canoe components such as split cedar planking and hand-hewn cedar ribs, gunwales, and cap rails.

There are also cedar headboards inserted inside the bow and stern of the model, placed just where they would be to stabilize a full-length canoe.

One material variation is the canoe model’s lashing (shown below), which is ash splint rather than the spruce root typically used on full-size birch bark canoes.

Nicholas also included a rounded oblong flap (shown above), called a wulegessis in the Passamaquoddy language, on each side of the bow and stern ends. According to Adney & Chappelle (1964), these provided a protective cover over the gunwale-tip lashings.

The quality of this canoe model’s authentic construction has helped it survive in very good condition for over 100 years, barring a bit of birch bark and lashing loss on the bow and stern, and the non-lashed middle thwart which we guess is an old replacement.

Artistic Embellishment

The decoration on this canoe model elevates it beyond being a well-made, accurate replica of a traditional Passamaquoddy birch bark canoe. The distinctive artwork is also what solidifies its attribution to Joseph Nicholas, as we’ll discuss in a following section.

The dark inner bark of white birch trees makes an excellent canvas for decoration because it can be scraped and etched to create patterns in the lighter bark layer beneath it, a feature of the medium that Nicholas used to full effect.

Nicholas etched a graceful antlered deer facing forward on each side of the bow of the canoe.

Other pictorial elements include botanical and feather shapes, and a star on one side of the stern.

The rest of the designs are geometric. Nicholas favored using half-circles (stylized rising suns or moons) to border one side of his pieces, and triangles (stylized teepees) on the other. He likely used a blade to trace around templates of geometric shapes to create a clean border within which to scrape the designs—the outline incisions are visible in the close-up photos below.

In this border on a wastepaper basket, Joseph Nicholas used triangles that show teepee support poles, but most often his triangle borders do not have the poles. He also incorporated a half-circle border into the base of the plant pots in this design.

Nicholas also created geometric designs on the center gore of both sides of the canoe model’s hull. One side has a creative pattern of squares, horizontal lines and diagonal hatching.

The other side has a windmill (or four winds) stylization.

All of the etched decoration on this canoe model remains incredibly vibrant, likely protected from oxidation by its original shellac overcoat.

Other Works by Joseph Nicholas

Although this canoe model is not signed, it is easy to make the attribution to Joseph Nicholas by comparing the pictorial and geometric etchings to known examples of his work.

There are several birch bark pieces made by Joseph Nicholas in the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine.

This log carrier was made by Joseph Nicholas in 1902. The fact that the Abbe was able to determine its exact origin date indicates that either a date is written on it, or it came with a written or verbal history at the time it was collected or donated.

The Abbe Museum also has a turn-of-the-century, etched Joseph Nicholas canoe model that is very much like the one we’re offering.

While the model is not signed, curators note that “the animals and plants depicted on it are virtually identical to those on log carriers made by Joe Nicholas that are in the Abbe Museum's collection.” (mainememory.net)

An even more solid attribution for Joseph Nicholas’s work emerged in the form of a decorated birch bark log carrier (shown below) that was offered for sale at a Maine auction in 2009. It had the following pencil inscription on the bottom: "From Joseph Nicholas, Princeton, Maine."

It is uncertain if the inscription was in Joseph Nicholas’s own hand or if it was written by the person who received the log carrier from him, but in any case it solidifies the link between a distinctive style of birch bark artwork and the identity of the artist.

Tracking Down Life Details
While there is certainty that a Passamaquoddy man named Joseph Nicholas made the objects attributed to him, there is less known about his life history.

It has been difficult for museum professionals to pinpoint his birth and death dates or family relations in part because there have been a number of Passamaquoddy men named Joseph Nicholas documented since the 1800s (and it is still a common Passamaquoddy name today).

Vintage photo of Passamaquoddy tribe members (*photo*: *passamaquoddypeople.com*)

We did our own digging into United States Census data and similar historical records, distilling our findings down to the two most likely identities.

The first is a Joseph Nicolas (an alternative spelling of Nicholas as recorded by a census taker) who was born in New Brunswick* in 1834 to a mother from New Brunswick and a father from Maine. In 1865 he married a woman named Mary who was born in 1845 to parents in New Brunswick, and in 1883 they had a daughter named Elizabeth.

At the time of the 1900 census the family was living on the Indian Township Reservation which is the reserve adjacent to the town of Princeton, Maine—the location printed on the log carrier inscribed with Joseph Nicholas’s name. Thus, both this man’s hometown and his birth date (he would have been 50-70 years old when making the birch bark crafts that are known today) make him a good candidate for being “the” Joseph Nicholas.

The other possibility is a Joseph Nicholas who was born in 1863 and died in Dennysville, Maine, just 32 miles from the town of Princeton, in 1919. His father was also named Joseph Nicholas and his mother was Adeline Nicholas. While he was only 56 when he died, he could have started producing birch bark artwork as a young man in the final decades of the 1800s.

Raising an Artist’s Profile

Over the past century, Joseph Nicholas’s work has been overshadowed by the work of his renowned Passamaquoddy contemporary, Tomah Joseph (see our previous Journal article on Tomah Joseph).

They lived during the same time period on the same Indian Township Reservation in Maine, so surely knew and influenced one another. An interesting note accompanying an image of the Joseph Nicholas canoe model in the Abbe Museum states “Often work that is most likely to be by Nicholas can be found attributed to the more famous Passamaquoddy birchbark artist, Tomah Joseph.” (mainememory.net)

Both men’s birch bark decoration marks a transitional period between the tribe’s ancient geometric motifs, such as the double curves etched on the early Passamaquoddy box below, and a more pictorial style.

(*photo*: *National Museum of the American Indian*)

A difference however, is that Tomah Joseph frequently sketched imagery from Passamaquoddy legends on his birch bark pieces (such as the rabbit smoking a pipe on his box pictured below), due in part to his relationship as an informant to an anthropologist for whom he recounted and illustrated his culture’s legends.

Tomah also tended to etch complete, narrative scenes of everyday life and activities, as illustrated on his box below.

In contrast, Joseph Nicholas was more attentive to the overall aesthetics of his compositions than to telling stories on birch bark.

He tended to completely fill the available space on his larger birch bark canvases, such as the side panels of log holders and wastepaper baskets.

He was undoubtedly a keen appreciator of plants, exuberantly etching distinctly different local species as fill from the top to bottom of his canvases.

The human figure he most often depicted was a Native hunter with a bow, a gallant archetype of an archer.

We surmise that Tomah Joseph became better known than Joseph Nicholas because he more often signed his work, because he was a more prominent member (and Chief) of his Passamaquoddy community, and because of his relationship with the Roosevelt family.

But to our eye, Joseph Nicholas’s pieces have more artistic flair while being every bit as well-crafted as Tomah Joseph’s birch bark work.

Joseph Nicholas holds a well-deserved place within the pantheon of talented Native American artists. His creations evoke connections to nature, cultural traditions, and dedication to craft and personal expression. We will never tire of looking at, and appreciating, his artistry in birch bark.

Notes and References

* Traditional Passamaquoddy homelands encompassed both sides of the St. Croix River that forms a border between Maine and New Brunswick, so the flow of families and fellow tribe members between Canada and Maine would have been quite natural, especially before and in the early decades after the Indian Township Reservation was established in Maine in 1824.

Adney, E. T. and Chapelle, H. I. (1964). The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.