Wikimedia Commons

File:French-style Iron Trade Axe (FOUS 737) (2bab1f15-1dd8-b71b-0b19-3dec6c1e3b9b).jpg

Original file ‎(940 × 626 pixels, file size: 188 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents
The categories of this image need checking. You can do so here.
  • Please remove redundant categories and try to put this image in the most specific category/categories.
  • You can remove this template by clicking here (or on the first line).


Summary edit

English: French-style Iron Trade Axe (FOUS 737)
Photographer
English: NPS photo
Title
English: French-style Iron Trade Axe (FOUS 737)
Publisher
English: U.S. National Park Service
Description
English:

French-style iron trade axe

"French axe" or "Squaw axe"? During the 1800s this axe (FOUS 737) might have been referred to as a "Squaw axe" because women often used small axes, or hatchets, for chopping wood or other tasks. The word "Squaw," writes Smithsonian Institution curator and linguist Ives Goddard, comes from an Algonquian-language word that meant "woman." "French ax" would have been applied to the axes that French merchants brought over to America, explains Carl P. Russell in "Firearms, Traps & Tools of the Mountain Men." "Because... French ships brought great numbers of these axes to the natives in America," he writes, "the term 'French axe' was quite generally applied by peoples other than French. Actually, the ax was not especially French; all of Europe made and used it. Willy-nilly, the name 'French ax' has persisted in America." "The name," he adds, "pertains to the type or style, not to the national origin of the specimen." Our understanding, then, is that, depending on the context, the names "French axe" and "Squaw axe" can be used synonymously.

  • Keywords: artifacts; artifact; fort union trading post national historic site; fur trade; northern plains; museum collections
Depicted place
English: Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site
Accession number
2bab1f15-1dd8-b71b-0b19-3dec6c1e3b9b
Source
English: NPGallery
Permission
(Reusing this file)
Public domain This image or media file contains material based on a work of a National Park Service employee, created as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, such work is in the public domain in the United States. See the NPS website and NPS copyright policy for more information.
NPS Unit Code
InfoField
FOUS
Album(s)
InfoField
English: Artifacts of Fort Union

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current10:15, 11 May 2024Thumbnail for version as of 10:15, 11 May 2024940 × 626 (188 KB)BMacZeroBot (talk | contribs)Batch upload (Commons:Batch uploading/NPGallery)

You cannot overwrite this file.

There are no pages that use this file.

Metadata

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.

Retrieved from "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:French-style_Iron_Trade_Axe_(FOUS_737)_(2bab1f15-1dd8-b71b-0b19-3dec6c1e3b9b).jpg&oldid=875769347"