Hair Pomade and 30/60/90 Years Ago in The Beaver

In the early nineteenth century, hair pomade was a fashionable item used by men to keep their locks neat and shiny. This James Atkinson brand from London, England, was made of bear grease. A chained bear graced its lid, possibly to indicate man’s dominance over animals. Bear grease was a common pomade ingredient and was said to be useful as a hair restorative. Priced at two shilling six pence, bear fat was one of the many commodities the Hudson’s Bay Company bought and sold. Like many items manufactured today, the raw product was sent out of the country to be processed, and then returned to Canada to be sold. By the twentieth century, bears became more difficult to obtain and the grease was replaced by beeswax, lard, or petroleum jelly.

In The Beaver…

90 years ago

Bird in the sky

A “high-pitched, droning noise” brought great excitement to the HBC base at Moose Factory on August 27, 1920. The great bird in the sky was a Curtiss HS-2L seaplane, said to have arrived to take motion pictures of the life and customs of the northern Canadian inhabitants. Some of residents busily snapped pictures, while others just stood gazing at the mysterious craft, the January 1921 issue reported.

60 years ago

Marks of beauty

In September 1951, Douglas Leechman told readers how Inuit women tattooed their faces and bodies. He relates how Captain Martin Frobisher may have been the first white man to describe tattooing in the Canadian Arctic, which was similar to that found in Greenland, Alaska, and Siberia. The fascinating article is well documented with photographs and illustrations.

30 years ago

Nearly royalty

In the Autumn 1981 article on Lord and Lady Aberdeen, we are given an intimate look at the life of the well-to-do who homesteaded in Canada. Based on Lady Ishbel’s journals, we learn of the family’s ambitious and costly Okanagan farm and cannery, which they started in 1891.