In search of some “good specimens”: The acquisition of the Stanley Collection at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum

Abstract

This article focuses on the provenance of the Stanley Collection—a group of 69 items from reserves in the Touchwood Hills area of Saskatchewan. The items were collected by reserve farm instructor Edward Stanley and his wife Elizabeth at the turn of the century and then sold to the Saskatchewan Museum of Natural History in 1914. By analyzing historical documents, artifacts, and oral histories, this study shows that the Stanley Collection was acquired under a colonialist collecting model that was largely influenced by power relations and then became part of provincial identity building in the early 1900s. Such insight contributes to a growing body of literature on collecting in the Canadian Prairies and also seeks to address reconciliation efforts in Canada. As the first study of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum's founding ethnographic collection, this paper provides an intriguing look at early collecting practices and the formation of the first museum in the Prairie provinces.