Images found on salmon can labels from the Gulf of Georgia Cannery are the topic of a collaborative research project involving UVic, the cannery, and the Richmond Art Gallery. Under the direction of UVic history in art professor Carol Gibson-Wood, history graduate student Kathy McKay and history in art graduate Claudia Lorenz researched the icons depicted on historic salmon can labels. The labels are unique records of West Coast cultural and technological development, and Lorenz and McKay’s research will help unfold and preserve the history they contain.
The
Industry Narratives salmon can label project is one of several funded by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Community University
Research Alliance (CURA) program, aimed at developing collaborative relationships
between the university and the arts and heritage community throughout B.C. and
the Yukon.Located at the mouth of the Fraser River in the historic fishing village of Steveston, the Gulf of Georgia Cannery is a 108-year-old historic site. The cannery is one of the last standing remnants of an industry that dotted B.C. shorelines during Canada’s infancy. Closed in 1972, the cannery now sees people instead of fish; 20,000 people visited the cannery in 2001 alone.
Viviane Gosselin, the cannery’s education and program coordinator, initiated Industry Narratives in 1999. “We want to commemorate our heritage in a contemporary way, and present the labels not just as artifacts, but as art,” she says. “CURA gave us the funding required to do the research, and connected us with students who were skilled and interested in the work.”
Lorenz and McKay discovered that salmon can labels were connected to a multitude of industries and ideologies. The cannery was on the cutting edge of food processing, advertising and printing technology. “Most of the labels are not dated,” Lorenz notes. “By learning about the evolution of the printing industry in colonial B.C., we can examine the techniques used to print different labels, and give the earlier labels some chronological order.”
Early labels encapsulate a great deal about how Canada was viewed, the technology being developed, the state of world affairs, and even where the salmon was going to be shipped.
“Most of the salmon produced at the cannery prior to World War II was shipped outside Canada,” says McKay. “That’s why there are pictures of plains Indian chiefs in headdress. Advertisers were appealing to European ideas of Canada and the ‘wild west’.” Labels also were part of a broader program in Canadian advertising, designed to attract immigrants. “Early imagery of beautiful landscapes and scenes of food communicated the abundance of riches the colonies had to offer,” Lorenz notes.
When asked why salmon can labels today are not as picturesque as in the past, Lorenz explains that advertising has evolved. “Now we have television, radio, newspapers, and colour flyers. All labels have to do is remind consumers of previous advertising,” McKay adds. “‘Simple’ was equated with modern in the 1970s, which was when the labels shifted away from pictures.”
Regardless of the type of icons in use today, McKay and Lorenz agree that the project has changed the way they look at labels. “I analyse everything now,” Lorenz laughs.
The labels are also the focus of an upcoming art exhibit. A juried selection of artists are producing works based on their interpretation of the labels, to be presented alongside the labels in a travelling exhibit this summer. Lorenz and McKay will speak at the exhibit, and their research will complement the art and enable visitors to put the labels into context as industrial and cultural heritage items.
Diane
Haughland is a participant in the SPARK program (Students Promoting Awareness
of Research Knowledge), funded by UVic, NSERC and SSHRC.