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The Herald's Patent Cedar Canoe
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| Herald's Patent Cedar Canoe, ca 1880. |
Although the canoe company founded by Daniel Herald produced a variety of canoe models, the most celebrated of his product line was the Herald's Patent Cedar Canoe. The patent in the name, dating to 1871, refers specifically to the design of the mould used in the building of this model. Herald developed a technique of double-skin construction, in which the patent mould was key. The resulting canoe was greatly valued for its exceptional strength and smooth, ribless interior. Hunters and fishers found the latter feature was kinder to the knees and made cleaning the canoe much easier. Here it is worth noting that Rice Lake, where Herald developed this canoe, was a place much favoured for both hunting waterfowl and fishing.
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| Detail of the Herald's Patent Cedar Canoe, ca 1880, showing Daniel Herald's stamp on the foredeck. |
Among the three moulds in the Daniel Herald-Rice Lake collection is a Herald's Patent mould (940387*). The actual Herald's Patent Canoe in the small-craft collection of CSTM is a painted model that dates to 1880 and is marked on the foredeck with Daniel Herald's builder's stamp (980007). Acquired from an individual in the United States, the canoe's provenance suggests a lineage of four previous owners going back to the original buyer who lived in the Moosehead Lake area of Maine.
| *The numbers in brackets are the accesssion numbers of artifacts held by the Museum. |
 
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