Bucket Fragment with Spanish Brown Paint - GRPO 8723

Round bottom of bucket containing soil deposition and remnants of Spanish Brown paint, thought to be the original contents of the container. Clerk John Macdonnell writes of the North West Company depot at Grand Portage in 1793, “most of their posts, Doors, and windows, are painted with spanish brown.” Recovered in 1937, the paint was later chemically analyzed and the contents were revealed to be iron oxide, or rust, and linseed oil. These two easily obtainable materials combine to produce the paint mentioned in one of the few primary document sources describing the North West Company operations at Grand Portage. This pigment has been reproduced on the doors on windowsills of the reconstructed Great Hall and Kitchen, illustrating how the park is able to use tangible links to the past from its museum collection to interpret to our modern day visitors, showing them exactly what was being used over two centuries ago.