Fur Trader's Jacket

Donald Campbell McTavish, grandson of Hudson’s Bay Company Governor George Simpson, worked as an HBC clerk from 1864 to 1881 at Norway House.

The community in what is now northern Manitoba is known for producing fine, multicoloured silk embroidery, and McTavish acquired a large collection of beautiful pieces, including this jacket. The jacket is made from smoketanned moose and caribou hides, and the embroidery was executed using a tight buttonhole stitch. Jackets like this were worn by Métis fur traders and company men.

In the summer of 2014, Sarah Goulet, a young Métis doctor and a descendent of the politician Maxim Goulet, donated this and another jacket, adding to the McTavish collection at the Manitoba Museum.

The exceptional quality of the embroidered moccasins, mittens, and jackets in the collection is a reflection of the expert eye and skills of McTavish’s Métis wife, Lydia Catherine Christie.