​Canoes

​Canoes are the oldest and longest used watercraft in the Great Lakes region. These craft, carved of a single log or meticulously pieced together birch-bark, passed through the Chicago Portage route for millennia before the arrival of the first Europeans.
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Tete-de-Boule Birchbark

  • One canoe in the Chicago Maritime Museum collection is a replica of a Tete-de-Boule birchbark 14-feet long built by the late Ralph Frese for the television mini-series “Centennial” starring Richard Chamberlin and Robert Conrad.

Canadian Birchbark Canoe

  • Canadian birchbark canoe built by Charlie Levarge, 15-feet long. Gunwales nailed on instead of lashed and the bark is pulling free of the gunwales due to pressure from the ribs.

Inuit Caribou Skin Kayak

  • Inuit caribou skin kayak, 15 feet 2 inches. Covered with caribou skin over a wooden frame by a native of Hudson Bay.

Greenland Eskimo Kayak

  • Greenland Eskimo kayak, ca 1900, 13-feet long, made of seal skin sewn over a skeleton of white pine.

​U.S. Coast Guard Rescue Craft

  • ​U.S. Coast Guard rescue craft, ca early 1900s.  26-feet long.  A pulling boat of lapstrake construction, with auxiliary power.