THUNDER BAY – LIVING – The Thunder Bay Museum is proud to announce a new temporary exhibit exploring the 1821 merger of the fur trading companies the Hudson’s Bay Company and North West Company. This past march was the 200th anniversary of that event. The exhibit discuss the long term impacts the merger had on the local and national economy in Canada and how that shaped out current political and social realities with a particular emphasis on the role of Indigenous and Métis people in this story. The exhibit will be featured in the Museum’s 2nd floor gallery from 15 October – end of June 2022.
To celebrate this latest exhibit the Thunder Bay Museum will be hosting an opening event on Friday, October 15thfrom 7 to 9 PM. The event will feature remarks from the partners in the exhibit, the Thunder Bay Historical Museum Society, The Champlain Society, and Fort William Historical Park.
Museum Executive Director, Scott Bradley says, “It’s been fascinating for our team to explore this topic in the research and through artifacts. The takeover of the North West Company by the Hudson’s Bay Company in many ways is a foundational event in the Lakehead and many nations of Canada. When trade routes shifted away from Lake Superior after the merger, new resource industries eventually filled the vacuum left behind. That momentum towards a more industrial economy is still evident today in the architecture and infrastructure of our communities and was the catalyst for treaties with First Nations peoples, which had significant impacts on the history of those communities, and were often not honoured to their full extent.”
For more information about the Thunder Bay Museum and its programs, please visit: https://www.thunderbaymuseum.com/
