Archives of Manitoba

Hudson's Bay Company Centenary Celebrations

1919

28 film reels

Series consists of film footage entitled Hudson's Bay Company Centenary Celebrations. The footage was taken in 1919 by filmmakers Harold Wyckoff and Bill Derr and was later edited together to make HBC's 250th anniversary film called Romance of the Far Fur Country; a film produced by Educational Films Corporation and released in 1920. There exists no known copies of Romance of the Far Fur Country and while the footage found in the Centenary Celebrations make-up the completed film, the sequences found on the individual reels are out of order.

The first several reels of film in the Centenary Celebrations focuses on the HBC supply ship S.S. Nascopie in the Eastern Arctic, Hudson and James Bays. Documented on the reels is the unloading of supplies, views of HBC posts, canoes on rivers in Ontario, HBC employees and Aboriginal peoples.

The majority of the film reels contain footage of British Columbia and Alberta. The scenes from British Columbia mainly take place at the Aboriginal village of Alert Bay. Documented are the inhabitants of the village, the buildings, the church and totem poles. The Alberta footage is a dramatized account of a HBC factor travelling from Athabasca Landing to Fort Chipewyan. The footage documents the transportation routes, the posts and the trapping of various animals. The factor was played by HBC employee Thomas O'Kelly and the trapper was played by Battice Plakoti.

Included within the Centenary Celebrations footage are two shorter films. The first is called Reminiscences: Life story of an Eskimo. The focus of the film is an Inuit hunter named Ingmilayak telling his life story to HBC employee Captain Mack. Various events in Ingmilayak's life are dramatized including his childhood, daily life and his marriage. The second short film consists of footage from The Trials and Tribulations of a Cameraman. This film captures the making of Romance of the Far Fur Country and highlights the difficulty of filming movies in cold climates.

Also included with the Centenary Celebrations are several outtake reels of film. Although much of the outtake scenes can be found in the Centenary Celebrations, some of them are unique to the outtake reels.

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The Hudson's Bay Company donated this film, and 13 others, to the British Film Institute (BFI) in 1956. Between 1956 and 2011 the BFI preserved, made duplicate copies and provided access to the film. In 2011 the British Film Institute donated the film to the Hudson's Bay Company Archives.

There are several films within HBCA's holdings that are made up of reedited and retitled versions of the Centenary Celebrations footage. These include: The Trials and Tribulations of a Cameraman; It's a Great Life - If; The Heritage of Adventure.