Compose a 2000 words assignment on a critical appraisal of a permanent exhibition in london. Needs to be plagiarism free! The practice οf collecting natural history specimens, artifacts, and artworks relating to the exploratory activities conducted by the Company was well established by the nineteenth century. The London Board οf the Hudsons Bay Company had for years contributed scientific specimens to the Royal Scottish Museum and the Smithsonian Institution in the United States. In addition, the Company had also gathered together materials for exhibition at its headquarters at Beaver House in London.

Many οf the Company’s fur trade employees also acquired their own private collections. Sir George Simpson, Governor οf the Northern Department from 1821 to 1826, and thereafter Governor οf the trading territories in British North America until 1860, collected various natural and human history materials for his personal enjoyment. He also presented selected items to his friends and business acquaintances. Simpson was a patron οf several frontier artists, including Paul Kane to whom he provided free passage, board, and lodging with the Companys fur brigades in exchange for orders οf specific artwork subjects and “curiosities οf the country” that reflected the natural history and the lives οf the various aboriginal peoples. Many οf these collections, including Simpsons, found their way to the auction block. Some remained in private hands, while still others have been sold or donated to museums.

By the turn οf the twentieth century, several retired officers οf the Hudsons Bay Company fur trade had expressed an interest in the development οf a historical corporate collection. According to available documentation, the idea for the acquisition οf a Hudson’s Bay Company historical collection and the establishment οf a museum was first proposed by Edmund Taylor in the early 1900s. At that time, Taylor was in charge of οf the Hudsons Bay Company.