Fur trading operation in Canada (1893–1936)
In 1899 Revillon Frères opened a wholesale warehouse in Edmonton, Alberta and by 1903 had 23 stores across Canada.[3] Owned by Victor Revillon, Revillon Frères eventually set up a network of fur-trading posts in northern Canada in direct competition with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) composed of an eastern division and a western division.
The western division included posts mostly in northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In 1911 the company had 13 posts north and west of Athabasca Landing. Having acquired a depot in Prince Albert in 1904 they had an additional 10 posts from The Pas to Brochet and Nueltin Lake at the edge of the tundra.[4]
The eastern division was in the region of James Bay and Ungava Bay in the north of Quebec which was served by their own fleet of ships.[4] By 1909, Revillon had forty-eight stores in its Eastern Arctic division while HBC had fifty-two.[5] Many of the Inuit villages in Nunavik, in northern Quebec, Canada, are located on sites originally occupied by Revillon Frères trading posts.
It was incorporated in Canada in 1912 as the Revillon Frères Trading Company Ltd.. In 1926 the Hudson's Bay Company bought 54% of the fur trade company and by 1936 the company was fully owned by the HBC. In 1938 the name was changed to Rupert's Land Trading Company.[6]
Revillon Frères financed Robert Flaherty's 1922 film Nanook of the North,[7] filmed near one of their trading posts at Inukjuak, Quebec on northeastern Hudson Bay, said to be Canada's first documentary.[8]
Ilya Andreyevich Tolstoy, the grandson of count Leo Tolstoy, stayed at the Revillon Frères Post of Windy Lake on Nueltin Lake in the winter of 1928-1929. He was in a group attempting to get film footage of the migrating caribou for the William Douglas Burden and William C. Chanler's production, The Silent Enemy, one of the last and greatest of the silent films, released in 1930.[9]
The Glenbow Museum located in Calgary has a collection of over 300 photographs of the Revillon posts, ships and items sold in their stores.[10] Many of the photographs were taken by Samuel Herbert Coward, the director of the Revillon Frères Trading Company Ltd. in Canada from 1904 to 1931.[11] There is a Revillon Frères Museum in Moosonee, Ontario which has been closed for several years.
Revillon Posts in Canada
Western division
- Edmonton, Alberta had a major store and warehouse and was the headquarters and distribution centre for the following posts.[12]
- Athabasca Landing, Alberta
- Grande Prairie, Alberta
- Lesser Slave Lake, Alberta
- Spirit River, Alberta
- Sturgeon Lake (Alberta)
- Peace River Crossing, Alberta
- Peace River, Alberta
- Fort Vermilion, Alberta
- Prairie Lake, Alberta
