George Colpitts: Beaver Money

Event Details

Most of us are familiar with the image of a beaver stamped on the Canadian nickel. In early Canada, however, the beaver pelt circulated as money and served as a unit of account to join Indigenous people and newcomers in commerce. This Nickle at Noon talk looks at the “Made Beaver” currency supporting early colonial town economies and the French and English fur trades for centuries.

George Colpitts, PhD is a Professor of History, University of Calgary.  His research examines the history of human relations around trade, exchange and cultural encounter.  His is also interseted in human encounters within the wild world: how the meaning of wildlife has changed in time, and how humanity has interacted with, found inspiration in, and frequently commodified in trade the wild things around them.  Recent publications include “Bison and Bookkeeping: Accounting for an Environmental Imagination in Great Plains Trading Posts” The Greater Plains: Rethinking a Region’s Environmental Histories Ed. in Brian Frehner and Kathleen Brosnan Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2021 and “Howl: The 1952-56 Rabies Crisis and the Creation of the Urban Wild at Banff” Animal Metropolis: Histories of Human-Animal Relations in Urban Canada Ed. Joanna Deane, Darcy Ingram and Christabelle Sethna, eds Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2017.

This talk will be presented live via Zoom.

Meeting ID: 990 7821 5923

Passcode: Nickle