George Colpitts
Biographic Data
| ID | 555619 |
|---|---|
| NAME | George Colpitts |
| GIVEN NAMES | George |
| FAMILY NAME | Colpitts |
| SIGNATURE | COLPITTS G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Calgary |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 11 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Fox Trading and the Problem of Polar Bears in the Hudson’s Bay Company
Just before World War I, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) geographically expanded its trade in the Canadian Arctic to derive profits from Arctic fox fur and secure its position in a global value chain (GVC) delivering fur to metropolitan consumers. The “problem of nature” challenged the company’s business venture. Furthermore, “nature” was made and remade by the HBC’s own capital investments. The fox trade itself changed human ecology. Technology t…
Inuit and Empire
Historians have not examined the Hudson's Bay Company's (HBC) "Native Welfare" program undertaken by its Development Department from 1926 to 1931, and the work of George Binney, who consolidated the company's humanitarian and health initiatives in these years into a London-directed social engineering program. His book, The Eskimo Book of Knowledge , published by the HBC in 1931 in both English and Inuktitut, and Native Welfare itself, was largely…
Murder, Death, and Suicide at the Zoo
Between the 1930s and 1950s, two cohorts of polar bears became star attractions at the Jardin zoologique du Québec, located in Charlesbourg on the outskirts of Quebec City. There, polar bear narratives changed because behaviours and expectations of the zoo’s public changed. But these stories were also shaped by the behaviours of these bears over their lifetimes. By using critical anthropomorphism as a method and drawing on studies of bears in zoo…
Masters and Servants
The lack of intent to provide an overarching appraisal about the nature of regional diplomacy is evident in the short conclusion, with only 4.5 pages, 1
Treaty 6 Cree Annuity Spending in the Territorial Economy of Western Canada, 1873-1905
Before mass settlement occurred in Western Canada at the turn of the twentieth century, Indigenous people used treaty monetization and town spending to subvert the very forces of liberalism encouraged with the expansion of a colonial market economy. After 1880, the Cree of Treaty 6, in particular, chose to collectively spend their annuities in new towns to support traditional dances and ceremonies and, especially, to join together in large multib…
Knowing nature in the business records of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1670–1840
After being established by royal charter in 1670, the London-based Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) created an impressive environmental record of British North America in its accounting and journals. The quality and flow of environmental information to its London Committee, however, changed by the nineteenth century, when directors privileged ‘facts’ rather than mere environmental observation. Of direct use within its emerging management accounting sys…
Animal Metropolis
Joanna would like to thank her student, Amanda Sauermann, whose enthusiasm for the topic of animals inspired the development of a course in animal history in 2009; Carleton's History Department for supporting the course; and the many curious students in that course's various iterations.Thanks also to many human friends who taught her to see the horse differently and to Wyatt, Paddy, and Ruby for reinforcing those lessons.She also thanks her co-ed…
Peace, War, and Climate Change on the Northern Plains
This article argues that the meaning of Alberta's "Neutral Hills" developed in the context of the periodic mild winters that adversely affected hunting in other areas of the plains and brought groups, even those at war, together in the same hunting grounds. In a region where Aboriginal oral tradition was inextricably linked to the landscape, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot nations), Cree, Nakoda, and Saulteaux found the means to cooperate in seasonal hunti…
Pemmican Empire
In the British territories of the North American Great Plains, food figured as a key trading commodity after 1780, when British and Canadian fur companies purchased ever-larger quantities of bison meats and fats (pemmican) from plains hunters to support their commercial expansion across the continent. Pemmican Empire traces the history of the unsustainable food-market hunt on the plains, which, once established, created distinctive trade relation…
North America’s Indian Trade in European Commerce and Imagination, 1580-1850
In North America's Indian Trade in European Commerce and Imagination, Colpitts offers new perspectives on Europe's contact with America by examining the ideas, debates and questions arising in the trading that linked newcomers with Native people. European capitalization of the Indian Trade, beginning in the 16th century, forced newcomers to confront the meaning and legitimacy of traditional gift economies and assess the vice and virtue of the com…
Accounting for Environmental Degradation in Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trade Journals and Account Books
the Wigs or Nabobs are getting so avaricious - that they are getting into a System of economy that ere long they Will starve themselves to death. altho the returns are still increasing, the Outfits are courtailed . . . (Letter from Norway House, 22 June 18321)
Game in the Garden
Journal Article Game in the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife in Western Canada to 1940 Get access Game in the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife in Western Canada to 1940. By Colpitts George. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. x + 205 pp. Illustrations, tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $75.00, cloth; $29.95, paper.) Theodore Binnema Theodore Binnema University of Northern British Columbia Search for other works by this author on: Oxfor…
Animated like Us by Commercial Interests’
Beginning in the mid-seventeenth century, French colonial correspondents, crown employees, and military officers began to describe in more detail the North American fur trade. They furnished to the metropolis more information concerning the exchange between Amerindians and Europeans, and they underscored the cultural and economic benefits that arose in exchange. For the first time, writers interested themselves in the details of exchange, identif…
Wildlife Promotions, Western Canadian Boosterism, and the Conservation Movement, 1890–1914
Between 1890 and World War One, western Canadians advertised their region as the last wildlife stronghold in North America. Few studies have assessed how and why westerners sought to win distinction as custodians of the last wild animals but, as this essay will demonstrate, urban promoters made numerous civic statements in their displays of wildlife that have been overlooked by historians more interested in the genesis of Canadian tourist industr…
North America’s Indian Trade in European Commerce and Imagination, 1580-1850
In North America's Indian Trade in European Commerce and Imagination, Colpitts offers new perspectives on Europe's contact with America by examining the ideas, debates and questions arising in the trading that linked newcomers with Native people. European capitalization of the Indian Trade, beginning in the 16th century, forced newcomers to confront the meaning and legitimacy of traditional gift economies and assess the vice and virtue of the com…
Animal Metropolis
Joanna would like to thank her student, Amanda Sauermann, whose enthusiasm for the topic of animals inspired the development of a course in animal history in 2009; Carleton's History Department for supporting the course; and the many curious students in that course's various iterations.Thanks also to many human friends who taught her to see the horse differently and to Wyatt, Paddy, and Ruby for reinforcing those lessons.She also thanks her co-ed…
Fox Trading and the Problem of Polar Bears in the Hudson’s Bay Company
Just before World War I, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) geographically expanded its trade in the Canadian Arctic to derive profits from Arctic fox fur and secure its position in a global value chain (GVC) delivering fur to metropolitan consumers. The “problem of nature” challenged the company’s business venture. Furthermore, “nature” was made and remade by the HBC’s own capital investments. The fox trade itself changed human ecology. Technology t…
Treaty 6 Cree Annuity Spending in the Territorial Economy of Western Canada, 1873-1905
Before mass settlement occurred in Western Canada at the turn of the twentieth century, Indigenous people used treaty monetization and town spending to subvert the very forces of liberalism encouraged with the expansion of a colonial market economy. After 1880, the Cree of Treaty 6, in particular, chose to collectively spend their annuities in new towns to support traditional dances and ceremonies and, especially, to join together in large multib…
Knowing nature in the business records of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1670–1840
After being established by royal charter in 1670, the London-based Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) created an impressive environmental record of British North America in its accounting and journals. The quality and flow of environmental information to its London Committee, however, changed by the nineteenth century, when directors privileged ‘facts’ rather than mere environmental observation. Of direct use within its emerging management accounting sys…
Peace, War, and Climate Change on the Northern Plains
This article argues that the meaning of Alberta's "Neutral Hills" developed in the context of the periodic mild winters that adversely affected hunting in other areas of the plains and brought groups, even those at war, together in the same hunting grounds. In a region where Aboriginal oral tradition was inextricably linked to the landscape, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot nations), Cree, Nakoda, and Saulteaux found the means to cooperate in seasonal hunti…
Accounting for Environmental Degradation in Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trade Journals and Account Books
the Wigs or Nabobs are getting so avaricious - that they are getting into a System of economy that ere long they Will starve themselves to death. altho the returns are still increasing, the Outfits are courtailed . . . (Letter from Norway House, 22 June 18321)
Wildlife Promotions, Western Canadian Boosterism, and the Conservation Movement, 1890–1914
Between 1890 and World War One, western Canadians advertised their region as the last wildlife stronghold in North America. Few studies have assessed how and why westerners sought to win distinction as custodians of the last wild animals but, as this essay will demonstrate, urban promoters made numerous civic statements in their displays of wildlife that have been overlooked by historians more interested in the genesis of Canadian tourist industr…
Animated like Us by Commercial Interests’
Beginning in the mid-seventeenth century, French colonial correspondents, crown employees, and military officers began to describe in more detail the North American fur trade. They furnished to the metropolis more information concerning the exchange between Amerindians and Europeans, and they underscored the cultural and economic benefits that arose in exchange. For the first time, writers interested themselves in the details of exchange, identif…
Game in the Garden
Journal Article Game in the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife in Western Canada to 1940 Get access Game in the Garden: A Human History of Wildlife in Western Canada to 1940. By Colpitts George. (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2002. x + 205 pp. Illustrations, tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, index. $75.00, cloth; $29.95, paper.) Theodore Binnema Theodore Binnema University of Northern British Columbia Search for other works by this author on: Oxfor…
Accounting for Environmental Degradation in Hudson's Bay Company Fur Trade Journals and Account Books
the Wigs or Nabobs are getting so avaricious - that they are getting into a System of economy that ere long they Will starve themselves to death. altho the returns are still increasing, the Outfits are courtailed . . . (Letter from Norway House, 22 June 18321)
Pemmican Empire
In the British territories of the North American Great Plains, food figured as a key trading commodity after 1780, when British and Canadian fur companies purchased ever-larger quantities of bison meats and fats (pemmican) from plains hunters to support their commercial expansion across the continent. Pemmican Empire traces the history of the unsustainable food-market hunt on the plains, which, once established, created distinctive trade relation…
North America’s Indian Trade in European Commerce and Imagination, 1580-1850
In North America's Indian Trade in European Commerce and Imagination, Colpitts offers new perspectives on Europe's contact with America by examining the ideas, debates and questions arising in the trading that linked newcomers with Native people. European capitalization of the Indian Trade, beginning in the 16th century, forced newcomers to confront the meaning and legitimacy of traditional gift economies and assess the vice and virtue of the com…
Peace, War, and Climate Change on the Northern Plains
This article argues that the meaning of Alberta's "Neutral Hills" developed in the context of the periodic mild winters that adversely affected hunting in other areas of the plains and brought groups, even those at war, together in the same hunting grounds. In a region where Aboriginal oral tradition was inextricably linked to the landscape, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot nations), Cree, Nakoda, and Saulteaux found the means to cooperate in seasonal hunti…
Knowing nature in the business records of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1670–1840
After being established by royal charter in 1670, the London-based Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) created an impressive environmental record of British North America in its accounting and journals. The quality and flow of environmental information to its London Committee, however, changed by the nineteenth century, when directors privileged ‘facts’ rather than mere environmental observation. Of direct use within its emerging management accounting sys…
Animal Metropolis
Joanna would like to thank her student, Amanda Sauermann, whose enthusiasm for the topic of animals inspired the development of a course in animal history in 2009; Carleton's History Department for supporting the course; and the many curious students in that course's various iterations.Thanks also to many human friends who taught her to see the horse differently and to Wyatt, Paddy, and Ruby for reinforcing those lessons.She also thanks her co-ed…
Treaty 6 Cree Annuity Spending in the Territorial Economy of Western Canada, 1873-1905
Before mass settlement occurred in Western Canada at the turn of the twentieth century, Indigenous people used treaty monetization and town spending to subvert the very forces of liberalism encouraged with the expansion of a colonial market economy. After 1880, the Cree of Treaty 6, in particular, chose to collectively spend their annuities in new towns to support traditional dances and ceremonies and, especially, to join together in large multib…
Masters and Servants
The lack of intent to provide an overarching appraisal about the nature of regional diplomacy is evident in the short conclusion, with only 4.5 pages, 1
Murder, Death, and Suicide at the Zoo
Between the 1930s and 1950s, two cohorts of polar bears became star attractions at the Jardin zoologique du Québec, located in Charlesbourg on the outskirts of Quebec City. There, polar bear narratives changed because behaviours and expectations of the zoo’s public changed. But these stories were also shaped by the behaviours of these bears over their lifetimes. By using critical anthropomorphism as a method and drawing on studies of bears in zoo…
Fox Trading and the Problem of Polar Bears in the Hudson’s Bay Company
Just before World War I, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) geographically expanded its trade in the Canadian Arctic to derive profits from Arctic fox fur and secure its position in a global value chain (GVC) delivering fur to metropolitan consumers. The “problem of nature” challenged the company’s business venture. Furthermore, “nature” was made and remade by the HBC’s own capital investments. The fox trade itself changed human ecology. Technology t…
Inuit and Empire
Historians have not examined the Hudson's Bay Company's (HBC) "Native Welfare" program undertaken by its Development Department from 1926 to 1931, and the work of George Binney, who consolidated the company's humanitarian and health initiatives in these years into a London-directed social engineering program. His book, The Eskimo Book of Knowledge , published by the HBC in 1931 in both English and Inuktitut, and Native Welfare itself, was largely…
Archaeology (9 works) · History (9 works) · Geography (8 works) · Canadian Identity and History (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · History (6 works) · Indigenous Studies and Ecology (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Bay (5 works) · Ecology (5 works)