In this scene, Adam Sherriff Scott showcases a generalized scene, in contrast to the many calendar images that depict specific historical events. A troop of late-eighteenth-century British colonial soldiers exit the Hudson’s Bay Company headquarters of York Factory, flags held high and drums banging, carrying trade goods including clothing and casks of brandy. On either side of the road, Indigenous traders and their families, recently arrived at the fort for the season, observe the procession. At the centre of the parade, the Indigenous Chief and his lieutenant—dressed in blue and red, in European clothes—are accompanied by the fort’s senior officer. This sort of pageantry in advance of trading was common, and served to further reinforce the perceived legitimacy and power of British imperial custom. By 1956, this sort of imagery was perhaps received as a little gauche: given that this was the first calendar to be given widespread French-language distribution, the HBC faced some internal concern regarding this painting’s valorization of British iconography and idealized view of the trade relationship.

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