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Smoked Herring Box


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Nom de l'objet : Smoked Herring Box
Type de l'objet : box
Catégorie de l'objet : distribution and transportation artifacts
Sous-catégorie de l'objet : container
Discipline : local history
Matériaux : wood - spruce
Numéro d'accession : 1975.199.01
Nom de la collection : local history
Province d'origine : New Brunswick
Pays d'origine : Canada
Continent d'origine : North America
Province d'utilisation : New Brunswick
Pays d'utilisation : Canada
Culture : Canadian
Description : Shallow, rough cut wooden box, probably spruce, with two nails at each joining corner, and two nails either side holding the top on.
Commentaires : A "Digby Chick" is a smoked herring fillet. Also known as "Chicks or Digby Fillets", sometimes known as "Blind Robins", they were a significant part of the local economy and wealth in the area, especially on Grand Manan. The McLaughlin family of Seal Cove, one of the founding families on the island, owned smokehouses in Seal Cove and had an export business. This 2 lb box is typical of a locally produced box used to ship the smoked herring fillets to market. 10 lb boxes were also used. A "boner" or filleter was paid by the box. The smoked herring industry began on Grand Manan in 1832, but quality was poor at first. From 1870-1890 Grand Manan led the world production of smoked herring, shipping out more than a million boxes some years. Early buildings were soon replaced by large, efficient smokehouses for higher quality fish products. In 1885 the USA introduced a tariff on many Canadian products, including smoked herring, so Grand Manan fish exporters expanded their market to include the West Indies. The 1930s saw the last of the smoked herring heydays on Grand Manan. In 1900 there were over 160 producers which had declined to 18 by 1941, 10 in 1946 and 4 in 1995. The last smoke house to operate on Grand Manan was owned by John Ingersoll of Woodwards Cove, and it ceased operation in 1996. The industry used to employ many islanders of all ages, both men and women. Children and women used to "string" the herring onto herring stakes which were put on "horses" (wooden racks). The horses were lifted by men into the rafters of the smoke house where they were tended and cured by slow smoldering fires for about 6 weeks. In 2014 there are still a few small-scale entrepreneurs smoking fish to sell locally to the summer tourist market, but there are no more smoke houses in operation exporting smoked herring products.
Fonctions : Locally made boxes were used for packaging Grand Manan smoked fish products. This box was made for exporting fish products for the McLaughlin Bros. Company of Seal Cove.
Largeur : 16
Profondeur : 6,3
Unité de mesure linéaire : cm
Nombre d'objets : 1
Nombre de parties composantes : 2
Objets associés : The Museum has many smoked-herring industry related artifacts, including a smokehouse model replica, hand-made boning stools, sticks for stringing herring, photographs, other sized boxes for shipping the fish, and several stencils for identifying different companies involved in the business throughout the 1900s.
Translittération de l'inscription : Black stenciled printing on box reads: DIGBY CHICKS 2 LBS NET, MC-L-BROS, LTD. GRAND MANAN, N.B.
Établissement : Grand Manan Museum  Facebook-Grand Manan Museum  Twitter-Grand Manan Museum 
Ville de l'établissement : Grand Manan
Province de l'établissement : New Brunswick

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