The labels off old salmon cans are telling us a great deal about West Coast
cultural and technological development by Diane Haughland
 First there were rugged mountains and silvery fish. Then came the beaver, the
Mountie, and the native chief on horseback. During the war, fish came back —
this time shaped like torpedoes — and warships replaced the mountainous
backdrop. Peacetime brought rosy-cheeked housewives and smiling men proudly
displaying their catch.
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.
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