Hudson’s Bay artifacts would be at home with prior Manitoba donations: archivists

Daniel Halmarson reports on concerns artifacts of public importance being auctioned off by Hudson's Bay Company could fall into the wrong hands.

Manitoba archivists caring for hundreds of thousands of Hudson’s Bay artifacts are hopeful the company’s most prized possession will wind up in public hands and it’s possible they have just the spot for the treasure.

Those looking after collections Hudson’s Bay donated in 1994 to their employers — the Manitoba Museum and the Archives of Manitoba — say the 1670 charter that birthed Canada’s oldest company would be right at home with their other artifacts.

“We know exactly where it belongs in our system,” Kathleen Epp, keeper of the province’s Hudson’s Bay Co. archives.

The provincial collection features items including maps dating back to 1709, videos, audio recordings and so many diaries, letters and research notes that textual records alone take up more than 1,500 linear meters of shelf space.

“We think of (the charter) as part of our records in a way already because ... we’ve got the rest of the story and so we feel like it makes sense for the charter to be here and to be as publicly accessible as any of the other records,” Epp said.

Talk of where the royal charter signed by King Charles II could wind up has been intensifying since Hudson’s Bay filed for creditor protection last month, when it said the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, an intensifying trade war and depressed downtown traffic made covering its bills too difficult.

Amid store liquidations and a hunt for buyers for the business and its assets, the company announced it’s planning an auction for its 1,700 art pieces, 2,700 artifacts and the 355-year-old charter.

That plan has faced opposition from historians, archivists and Indigenous groups who fear it would send priceless artifacts to the walls of millionaires, keeping them out of public sight.

But the auction to be run by Heffel Gallery allows items to be removed from the process if they are found to be owned by others or have historical or cultural significance, making them inappropriate for a sale.

The provision forms a glimmer of hope that the charter or other artifacts could head back to Manitoba, where Hudson’s Bay moved its headquarters after departing England.

“It is such an important founding document. I don’t think it belongs in private hands,” said Epp.

“It should be publicly available. It would be a shame to me if it wasn’t preserved in that way.”

Amelia Fay, curator of the HBC Museum Collection at the Manitoba Museum, feels similarly.

“Our ultimate goal is to ensure things are publicly accessible,” she said. “This is shared history for all Canadians and folks abroad.”

When asked whether her museum wants Bay artifacts or the charter that visited for an exhibition in 2020, she said, “I can’t really speak to that at the moment, but it’s something we always consider.”

“The collection isn’t stagnant,” she said of the 27,000 items she presides over.

“Even though it came to us as kind of an entity in the ’90s, it’s continued to grow since then and we’re still accepting donations from descendants of fur traders and other individuals with connections to the company. We’re always kind of open to adding to the collection of particularly significant pieces of history and particularly things that are significant to Manitobans.”

Acquiring an item like the royal charter, which as well as creating the company also allowed Hudson’s Bay to rule over much of Canada and shape the country’s economy for decades, is no easy lift for a museum.

Experts expect the charter to fetch a pretty penny and require donor help for any institution to acquire.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has said he won’t rule out the province getting involved but hoped the company would turn its pieces over to the public.

“Why don’t they just make sure that these things that matter to the Canadian people, to Canadian history, to First Nations, Indigenous people ... fall into the hands of the public?” he said Friday.

The Indigenous Council of the Canadian Museums Association has sent a letter to Hudson’s Bay highlighting the importance of considering the sale of their collection against Indigenous rights and treaty obligations, the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples and relevant Canadian law.

The letter also notes that it has a chance to engage in a powerful act of relationship-building and reconciliation.

Group spokeswoman Rebecca MacKenzie noted the organization is continuing to gather information in what she it called a “developing situation.”

Asad Moten, a lawyer representing the attorney general of Canada and several other federal government bodies, has told a court the country may have interest in acquiring some items in the collection or even ensuring their cultural significance is not diminished and they are not “broken apart.”

First, he says the country needs to know what Hudson’s Bay has squirreled away. While it has yet to reveal the contents of its collection, a source familiar with the auction process, who was not authorized to speak publicly, has told The Canadian Press the items proposed to be auctioned off include paintings dating back to 1650, point blankets, paper documents and even collectible Barbie dolls.

To get a sense of the value that lies in what Hudson’s Bay owns, one need only look at how previous item donations are being used. Academics turn to the collection at the Manitoba Museum for research.

Fay says she’s seen a resurgence in interest in First Nations and Métis bead and quillwork from artists looking to items their ancestors made for inspiration.

Epp has seen Hudson’s Bay documents used to study climate change because trading posts often recorded the weather.

Some archival material has also bolstered land claims or traced genealogy.

The Hudson’s Bay leaders who created the records centuries ago “weren’t thinking people might be interested to know how the original Indigenous name of this family changed over time, which we can demonstrate with the records, but that’s not why they kept them,” Epp said.

“They kept them because they were keeping track of their customers, so the records have provided such a wealth of information, and it’s used in so many different ways.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2025.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press