Visitors to the Manitoba Museum walk by a map showing the route of the ship that launched the Hudson's Bay Company when it sailed from England in 1668 to trade for furs in Hudson Bay, in downtown Winnipeg, in March, 2023.NASUNA STUART-ULIN/The New York Times
As Hudson’s Bay Co. seeks a plan to salvage part of its business, Canada’s oldest retailer is also considering the future of its collection of art and artifacts – including the original 1670 royal charter that launched the company and played a pivotal role in the country’s history.
The collection is included in an information memorandum prepared last month by Hudson’s Bay, which received court protection from its creditors in early March. The memorandum provides an overview of HBC’s corporate assets as part of a process to solicit bids for all or part of the company. The confidential document was obtained by The Globe and Mail.
Among the assets described in the memorandum is “a collection of artwork and items that date back to the company’s role in the founding and development of Canada.”
While many of the Bay’s most prized historical objects and records were donated to the province of Manitoba and the Manitoba Museum in 1994, the company still owns a number of artifacts, including store paraphernalia, packaging, private-brand items, company awards and plaques. HBC also owns memorabilia such as a number of Bay point blankets – which have been in continuously in production since 1780 – and point blanket coats.
The company’s collection of art, some of which could be for sale, is primarily made up of Canadian works. It includes 17th- and 18th-century portraits, historical calendar paintings, Inuit prints and sculptures, and photographic and limited-edition prints. One example of a piece featured in the confidential memorandum is Woman Juggling by Sorosiluto Ashoona, an Inuit graphic artist from Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut.
Hudson’s Bay spokesperson Tiffany Bourré declined to specify how many items are included in the company’s collection, or other examples of notable works the retailer owns.
Not everything in the collection is simply being sold to the highest bidder. The most valuable artifact, for example – the 1670 royal charter – “will be provided special consideration given its important role in Canadian history and significance to the Canadian population,” the memorandum states.
The first page of Hudson’s Bay Company’s Royal Charter, 1670.Supplied
Written on parchment and including the wax seal of King Charles II, it is displayed at HBC’s corporate offices in Toronto.
The charter granted exclusive trading rights to HBC over a vast swath of territory comprising the drainage basin surrounding Hudson Bay – without the consent of the Indigenous peoples who already resided there.
“By naming and claiming almost a third of what is known today as Canada, the royal charter is foundational in understanding the country’s past,” the memorandum says, adding that the document “has been compared in value and importance to the American Declaration of Independence and the Canadian Constitution.”
Because of that significance, archivists are hoping the charter may end up in a public collection.
A natural home could be the Archives of Manitoba, which houses the other HBC records.
Since the 1994 donation, additional HBC records have been added to the collection, which receives financial support from the Hudson’s Bay Company History Foundation.Hudson's Bay Company/Supplied
“It kicks off everything, all the records we have here – records that have been designated by UNESCO as internationally significant heritage resources,” said Kathleen Epp, keeper of the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives at the Archives of Manitoba. “It seems like this is the only place for it.”
Since the 1994 donation, additional HBC records have been added to the collection, which receives financial support from the Hudson’s Bay Company History Foundation.
Facing a financial crisis, Hudson’s Bay was granted court protection from its creditors on March 7 under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. But the foundation is separate from the company and is not affected by the CCAA process.
More recent company records could be preserved in the archives in future, Ms. Epp said, though she could not speak to any current discussions.
In an e-mailed statement provided to The Globe, Ms. Bourré also noted the “extraordinary significance” of the charter. “HBC and other stakeholders are working to help ensure the company’s heritage is preserved and protected,” she wrote.
Last week, the Bay began liquidation sales at all but six of its stores across the country – including 74 Hudson’s Bay locations, as well as two Saks Fifth Avenue and 13 Saks Off Fifth stores that the company operates in Canada.Hudson's Bay Company/Supplied
Last week, the Bay began liquidation sales at all but six of its stores across the country – including 74 Hudson’s Bay locations, as well as two Saks Fifth Avenue and 13 Saks Off Fifth stores that the company operates in Canada. It is seeking buyers or investors that could keep some of the operations going. But if a plan is not forthcoming, the Bay may not survive.
It is extremely important that historical records and artifacts are accessible to researchers and Canadians as part of a public collection, Ms. Epp said. The records have been used to settle Indigenous land claims, to research climate change and shifting animal populations, and to trace genealogical records, she said. And the company places very few restrictions on the use of the archives and has no control over who has access to them.
With the company now facing a financial crisis, Ms. Epp applauds the fact that so many of the records are protected. And she notes that the number in the archives’ classification system, which was allocated to the 1670 charter decades ago – A.37/1 – remains in place should the document ever be part of the collection in future.
“So much is in flux and unknown,” she said. “They know we’re here.”