Education of a Raft Wacko

Illa-Tiki , John Haslett's first raft (top), hoisted a single squaresail on a bipod mast. It was intended for a pure downwind drift voya...

Northeastern Amerindian Canoes: Peabody Museum #8

As the final installment in the series,  let's look now at boat-related exhibits of Northeastern American Indian cultures at  Harvard Un...

More Pacific Northwest Canoe Items: Peabody Museum #5

This post, the fifth in a series on exhibits at Harvard University's   Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology ,  highlights more ca...

Nootka, Haida, Kwakiutl Dwellings and Canoes: Peabody Museum #4

Let's look at more maritime-related dioramas at Harvard University's   Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology , these depicting...

The Tomol Revival

In our most recent posts, which looked at the cultural background of the Chumash tomol and at tomol construction , both referred to replica...

Tomol Construction

A Chumash tomol . Painting by Robert Thomas. Click any image to enlarge. In our previous post, we looked at social and economic aspects of t...

The Chumash and the Tomol

A tomol replica built in 1976. Source: Chumash Maritime Organization . (Click any image to enlarge.) The Chumash were a North American marit...

Updates on Old and Ancient Canoes

A couple years ago , I noted briefly the discovery of a 230-year-old Canadian birchbark canoe, believed to be the oldest surviving example, ...

Authentic Fiberglass Birchbark Canoes

Of course the title of this post is meant as a malapropism, but John Lindman of the Bark Canoe Store comes as close as anyone to making an ...

César's Bark Canoe

This video by Canada's National Film Board is familiar to many bark canoe aficionados. For those not familiar with it: it's a well f...