Snowshoes: 2024 IMLS Feature
As we come to the end of our 2022-2024 IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) grant project, the Conservation staff are showcasing standout objects recently treated. During the two-year project we have conserved and relocated 2,106 objects, and created fully digital catalog records for 815 of these. The following blog highlights the snowshoes that made their way through this grant, now made accessible to the public via The Henry Ford’s Digital Collections.
Snowshoes have a long history in North America. Indigenous peoples invented the form using thin strips of collagenous material (sinew or treated hide) and bent wood. The woven strips created a netting used for walking on snow. In fact, using snowshoes helped Indigenous peoples in snowy areas thrive during wintertime. The shoes facilitated trade, hunting, trapping, and self-defense. You can read more about the advantages of Indigenous snowshoe knowledge in Thomas M. Wickman’s book, Snowshoe Country: An Environmental and Cultural History of Winter in the Early American Northeast (2018).
Wickman focuses on the Wabanaki, including Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot peoples, in northern New England. The Wabanaki held advantage in the area during the 1600s, but by the early 1700s, British colonizers co-opted Indigenous tactics, including snowshoes, and launched winter offensives with the goal of eliminating their Indigenous opponents. Snowshoes then became a tool that British colonizers used for daily winter transport.
Copperplate engraving made around 1820, "Great Snow in 1717" / THF118620
A description of the “Great Snow Storm” of 1717, included in Historical Scenes in the United States (1827), described the snow as being so deep that “people stepped out of their chamber-windows on snow shoes.” The author, John W. Barber, mentions consequences of the 1717 snow, a “terrible tempest” that trapped New Englanders in upward of 15 feet of snow accumulated over several storms in late February and early March. The rather bucolic illustration does not convey the tragedy of the weather event. The 1891 book Historic Storms of New England does a better job. Author Sidney Perley puts the storm into context in his chapter, “The Winter of 1716-1717,” including the loss of livestock and humans. He also provides detail about those colonists who donned snowshoes, including mail carriers and residents who relied on the shoes to tend to livestock or assist neighbors, and sometimes to visit sweethearts.
Native American Basket Market, Ojibwa Tribe, Mackinac Island, Michigan, September 1904 / THF118996
Indigenous knowledge remained essential to snowshoe construction. A photograph shows Ojibwa people selling baskets, and in the background, a pair of snowshoes leaning against a tree. The snowshoes treated during the IMLS grant project lack the decorative tufts of either dyed moose hair or wool visible on the Ojibwa snowshoes, but the intact webbing, carefully conserved, still indicates the craftsmanship evident in each shoe.
Some of the snowshoes in The Henry Ford’s collections still have their leather ankle loops and toe thongs intact. These details secured the toe to the shoe, leaving the heel free to lift the shoe and step forward with each stride.
The following images show the work of conservation, and the photography that was used to document our process. We are pleased to be able to share these remarkable artifacts via THF’s Digital Collections.
One shoe of a pair of snowshoes needed stabilization before proper handling. A section of the wood frame was missing, leaving sharp pieces of wood sticking out. The dowels keeping the tail together had split, causing more tension on the weakened rawhide webbing. / Images by Jeeeun Sims (Jee Eun Lim)
The tail was stabilized with painted wooden dowels inserted between the gaps that were secured with wood glue. The large loss to the wood frame was filled with a wood putty that was levelled, scored with a dental pick to create the wood grain, and painted to match the rest of the wood. / Images by Jeeeun Sims (Jee Eun Lim)
The rawhide was then cleaned with a mild detergent and distilled water with a stiff brush to remove as much dirt as possible. The rawhide webbing is rather sturdy, even where it had detached from the wooden frame, and was not in need of reattachment at this time. / Images by Jeeeun Sims (Jee Eun Lim)
Another pair of snowshoes in a different shape from the previous pair has leather shoe holders attached to the mesh component made of rawhide. One-fourth of the mesh is missing, while the rest of the mesh was stained by dirt and dust. The overall surface of the leather was fragile, cracked, missing, and broken in some areas. A leather strap to hold the toes was split and separated from the object. / Images by Jeeeun Sims (Jee Eun Lim)
The leather was consolidated with Jade R adhesive and Japanese tissue attached to the reverse side of broken leather areas after cleaning with distilled water. The split leather strap was also reattached in the original position by the same restoration method. The restored areas by Japanese tissue were painted to match the rest of the leather. The rawhide was cleaned with the same method as described with the previous snowshoes. / Images by Jeeeun Sims (Jee Eun Lim)
The leather shoe holder is held in place with a foam support to keep the shape and avoid further physical damage. Oil-based gel stain mixed with nutmeg and antique walnut color was applied on the wood surface of the object to match the rest of the color of the wood. / Images by Jeeeun Sims (Jee Eun Lim)
Thanks to the work of the IMLS team, the care and conservation of these organic artifacts is complete. In the photo studio, the snowshoes presented even more complexities.
They proved to be one of the trickiest (and most delicate) objects photographed throughout the IMLS grant project. Senior photographer and studio manager, Jillian Ferraiuolo, outlines below how the snowshoes needed to be handled carefully to be properly photographed.
Snowshoes set up for photography / Image by Jillian Ferraiuolo
Because they are so large, the snowshoes were photographed on the ground, with white boards placed underneath to protect them from the floor. A white background also makes it easier to clean the background during the editing phase and remove anything that’s not a part of the object.
Object 2022.0.22.646 / THF800530
Object 2022.0.22.645 / THF800534
Object 2022.0.22.644 / THF800535
Photographing the snowshoes was one of the final steps towards getting these important objects added to THF’s Digital Collections webpage. Thanks to IMLS funding, these and more artifacts that tell agricultural and environmental histories have become more accessible.
This blog was written by Jeeeun Sims (Jee Eun Lim), IMLS project conservator; Jillian Ferraiuolo, senior photographer & sudio manager; and Debra A. Reid, curator, agriculture and the environment.
Marlene Gray, senior conservator; Julia Fahling, conservation specialist; Eleanor Glenn, former conservation specialist; Mary Fahey, chief conservator; and volunteers (Eric Bergmann, Maria Gramer, Frances McCans, and Larry McCans) assisted Jee throughout the two-year grant project.
