The HBC Point Blanket: a Canadian icon

The HBC Point Blanket: a Canadian icon and a symbol of colonialism

With a colonial history that dates back more than 350 years, HBC has a responsibility to acknowledge and confront its past, and raise up multiple voices and perspectives in the telling of its history.

The HBC Point Blanket has been called many things throughout its history: an essential trade item, an enduring emblem of Canada, a carrier of disease, and a symbol of colonialism. Fact and fiction are woven into our understanding of the blanket’s history. This space begins to unpack and acknowledge the many layers of symbolism the blanket embodies in history, art, pop culture, and commerce.

Like many other material items from the fur trade era, blankets are multivocal, carrying multiple meanings that overlap, and at times conflict, with one another. The stories we tell about blankets are often shared, entangled, and contested. The connections many have to HBC Point Blankets are both deeply personal and political. For some, they elicit fond childhood memories or are embedded in family histories, while for others, they are hurtful reminders of the enduring impact of colonialism and systemic racism.

Men in early Canada surrounded by Hudsons Bay Blankets

Blankets and disease are intertwined in Indigenous art and oral history. Although there is no evidence that HBC Point Blankets were used to intentionally spread smallpox, there is no question that Hudson’s Bay Company played a defining role in the colonization of Canada and that its presence in North America contributed to the devastating spread of disease among Indigenous communities.

We aim to give voice to all blanket stories, and this space will evolve and grow as more perspectives are included. New interpretations not only redefine the blanket’s story, they also encourage us to think about how we understand the fur trade, cultures in contact, or the scope and nuances of HBC’s legacy.

Origins of the HBC Point Blanket

Blankets were already well established as a popular trade item when HBC set off on its first trading expedition into Hudson’s Bay. Europeans interested in obtaining furs had to contend with an Indigenous “buyer’s market” made up of demanding customers that had become experts in the quality of textiles. If the product had imperfections or the colour was unsatisfactory in any way, Indigenous customers would refuse to trade. Indigenous demand for certain goods such as blankets and the strategies they used to obtain a better price for these items shaped the fur trade.

French blankets were initially obtained by HBC to meet Indigenous demand. Eventually, British mills began producing their own blankets and cloth based on French products, but at a lower cost. When trade items didn’t meet expectations, Indigenous consumers expressed their dissatisfaction. Faulty or substandard goods were sent back to London and company employees documented the details of the complaints. In response, the Company made changes and improved the quality of the items. French traders also received complaints noting that the English woolen goods (the very same ones that had been copied) were of superior quality.

As competition between Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company intensified and the fur trade made its way into the interior of the continent, complaints related to trade goods also increased. In fact, Indigenous traders were successful in playing both companies against each other in the hopes of lowering the price of goods.

This is when Germain Maugenest entered the scene. Maugenest was an independent fur trader who was heavily in debt to a Montreal fur trade entrepreneur. To escape his dire situation, he joined HBC in 1779. His knowledge of the trade was seen as invaluable, and he was sent to England to meet with HBC’s Board at Hudson’s Bay House in London. There, he delivered his “Proposals of the Terms” under which he would enter into Hudson’s Bay Company’s service. He offered several suggestions for improving the growing inland trade from Fort Albany along the west coast of James Bay. Among his terms was a suggestion that the Company should regularly stock and trade “pointed” blankets. By December 1779, sample blankets were received by the London Committee and an order was issued for 500 pairs of “pointed” blankets; 100 pairs each in 1-, 1.5-, 2-, 2.5-, and 3-point sizes.

The Point System

The “point” system was invented by French weavers in the mid-18th century as a means of indicating the finished overall size (area) of a blanket. The word point derives from the French empointer meaning “to make threaded stitches on cloth.” The number of points on a blanket represents the overall finished size of the blanket, not its value in terms of beaver pelts as is sometimes believed.

Each blanket was graded using a point system. Points were identified by the indigo lines woven into the side of each blanket. A full point measured 4–5.5 inches (10–14 centimetres); a half point measured half that length. The standard measurements for a pair of 1-point blankets was: 2 feet, 8 inches (81 centimetres) wide by 8 feet (2.4 metres) in length; with a weight of 3 pounds, 1 ounce (1.4 kilograms) each. Points ranged from 1 to 6, increasing by halves depending upon the size and weight of the blanket.

Quality in Manufacturing

Originally, the weavers of Witney, Oxfordshire were the principal suppliers of HBC Point Blankets. By the early 19th century, the demand was so high that HBC began ordering blankets from various English weaving companies in Yorkshire including Wormalds and Walkers.

In 1982 Hainsworth purchased Wormalds and Walkers, and agreed to be the new custodians and manufacturers of the blanket in order to preserve its existing quality, make, fibre selection and wool sourcing. Hainsworth continues to be HBC’s exclusive partner in manufacturing the Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket. The wool was, and remains, a blend of varieties from Britain and New Zealand, each selected for its special qualities that make the blanket water resistant, soft, warm, and strong.

The wool is first dyed before it is spun. It is then air and sun dried to brighten the colours. The blankets are woven 50% larger than their final finished size, before they are put through a milling process, which reduces them to prevent further shrinkage. In addition, the milling prevents the blanket from hardening when exposed to severe climatic conditions.

The many uses of the Point Blanket

HBC Point Blankets could offer warmth in more ways than one. In addition to being used as bedding, blankets were turned into long underwear, leggings, socks, pants, mittens, and moccasin liners. They were used as gifts during potlatch ceremonies and as entitlements in treaties; they were also used as sails on sleds and canoes and as saddles on the backs of horses.

They could also be repurposed as sleds, burial shrouds, wading for bullets, and as dog bedding. Most commonly, blankets were transformed into custom, hand-made wrap coats called capotes. These coats have an equally long and interesting history as the HBC Point Blanket. They were worn by First Nations, Métis, French settlers, traders, trappers, and later British settlers throughout the fur trade era.

While most people would fashion capotes from blankets themselves, HBC also sold pre-made capotes as a trade item. The Company employed a tailor in 1706 to construct the capotes and by the late 1700s, tailors were employed at all of HBC’s major posts.

Blankets and blanket coats are considered by historian Cynthia Cooper as “culturally hybrid garments”, as European textiles and tailoring techniques collided with Indigenous craft traditions, dress and functions. The blanket coat, and what it represented, also evolved in different ways as HBC turned its attention from the fur trade to retail at the turn of the twentieth century.

Wolfmaan wearing a Hudons Bay Blanket Capote Coat

Woman wearing a Hudsons Bay Blanket made into a coat

Popular Colours

A variety of factors influenced the availability and preference for specific blanket colours throughout the fur trade. When Hudson’s Bay Point Blankets became a regular trade good in 1780, the standard colourways available were plain white, scarlet (red), green, and blue, with single headings in black (or more often indigos) at each end.

White was the most common colour with bars in indigo, red, or blue. Some believe that many Indigenous Peoples preferred white blankets for camouflage purposes in the winter. There is some evidence that among the coastal communities, the Tsimshian and Tlingit preferred deep blue, while the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka’wakw) and Nuu-Chah-Nulth preferred green. Some communities of Coast and Interior Salish preferred red. Some believe that specific colours may have been popular because of their significance to Indigenous cultures and communities, such as those associated with the directions of the wind or the medicine wheel. Some research, however, suggests that colours used in blankets were a reflection of regional preference and availability at trading posts. For instance, the white blanket was popular at Fort Edmonton, while a green blanket was popular in Vancouver.

Preferences could also change, as ethnographer Aurel Krause noted as he spent the winter of 1881-2 with the Tlingit on the Northwest Coast:

A woolen blanket now is the most indispensable piece of clothing of an Indian. It is thrown loosely over the shoulder and worn in a toga like fashion. Blankets of blue and white are preferred (among the Tlingit) but even here fashion changes, much to the chagrin of the traders.

1952 Hudsons Bay Blanket Advertisement

The multistripe HBC Point Blanket pattern was introduced at the end of the 18th century. In fact, the earliest reference to the multistripe pattern is from a 1798 order from HBC’s London Headquarters to Thomas Empson of Witney for “30 pairs of 3 points to be striped with four colours (red, blue, green, yellow) according to your judgment.” The modern “order” of the stripes — green, red, yellow, and indigo — was not standardized until the mid- to late 19th century.

Although some sources suggest there is some meaning to the stripe colours or order, the truth is that nothing intentional is, or was, meant by the design. The four traditional colours — green, red, yellow, and indigo — were simply colours that were popular and easily produced using good colourfast dyes at the time that the multistripe blanket was introduced around 1800.

A “Canadian icon”

Inspired by the settler stories of early exploration in the company’s past, the blanket and blanket coat took on a new meaning for the modern adventurer, athlete, and home decorator in the 1920s.

“Best for Home – Camp – Trail” proclaimed print advertisements, evidence of a transition from a fur trading and company store in small towns to an urban retail presence. The blanket’s story shifted from the romanticism of the fur trade to that of a popular Canadian product used universally from coast to coast, and having stood the test of time. In 1935, Douglas Mackay, editor of The Beaver, then an HBC publication, confidently asserted that it is the blanket’s reputation, not advertisement, that is the cause of the blanket’s impressive sales, and that “in the

Ski lodges of the Laurentians, in the fishing camps of the Maritime Provinces and in the big game expeditions into the Rockies, you will see their colours glowing.”

Hudsons Bay Blanket Display Window

The multistripe, the most popular blanket sold, also became synonymous with Canada on the global stage. The introduction in 1922 of outerwear made from the blanket increased the audience for the multistripe pattern. The use of striped blanket coats by Canadian teams at a number of Winter Olympics strengthened the connection between the HBC stripes and Canada. This led HBC to use the multistripe in advertising as a kind of corporate branding. In the second half of the 20th century, Indigenous artists began incorporating the HBC Point Blanket into their work as a symbol of colonialism and disease.

Although there is no documented evidence that HBC used blankets to intentionally infect Indigenous Peoples with smallpox, there is no question that the presence of HBC in North America, fur trade networks, and the boat brigades that travelled through them, contributed to the spread of disease. Waves of epidemics were devastating on Indigenous Peoples, families, communities, as well as on their cultural, political and economic structures. HBC attempted to provide medical care and assistance to the sick, and put in place preventative measures to stop infectious diseases, the most successful being a vaccination campaign during the smallpox epidemic of the 1830s.

It was to the Company’s advantage to put these measures in place, as those affected were both essential suppliers and customers. These strategies, however, could not begin to counter the overall impact of disease on Indigenous populations in North America. In 2022, Hudson’s Bay Foundation and the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund partnered to launch Oshki Wupoowane | The Blanket Fund. On September 30 of that year it was announced that moving forward, 100% of net proceeds from the sale of all HBC Point Blankets would go to Indigenous Peoples.

The HBC Point Blanket: a Canadian icon