Glooskap and the Fairy (for "Canadian Wonder Tales")

George Sheringham|Cyrus Macmillan|John Lane Company, New York

ca. 1918 · Pen and ink, brush and wash, gouache (bodycolor), on colored paper · Drawings and Prints

Sheringham created this illustration for a book of collected stories by Canadian academic and, later, politician Cyrus Macmillan, whose research into folklore and native storytelling began with his Harvard doctoral thesis, "The Folk Songs of Canada" (1909). Macmillan based his "Canadian Wonder Tales" on narratives recounted to him by First Nations peoples. This scene shows the "little man" paddling a canoe through stormy weather in a challenge posed to him by Glooskap—a mythological origin figure common among many Indigenous tribes of the northeast Atlantic coast.

Artist

George Sheringham|Cyrus Macmillan|John Lane Company, New York

Date

ca. 1918

Medium

Pen and ink, brush and wash, gouache (bodycolor), on colored paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1967