Bead Types at Fort Vancouver

These hot tumbled beads were found by archaeologists working at Fort Vancouver in the mid-20th century. These modern archaeologists strung them on strings for easier tracking.

NPS Photo, FOVA 1759

The museum collection at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site contains over 120,000 glass beads. Such a large and diverse assemblage poses a tremendous challenge to historical archaeologists studying the 19th century fur trade. Since 1970, analysts have made efforts to create a basic typology to understand the trade beads at Fort Vancouver. The beads have been categorized into over 160 individual varieties, in a multitude of colors and shapes.

Beads have an ancient history, demonstrated by their recovery from prehistoric archaeological sites of many cultures spanning the globe. Ancient Egyptians manufactured glass beads and Romans marketed glass beads widely throughout their empire. Glass trade beads are recovered from North American fur trade sites dating from the 16th to the early 20th century, stretching from the east coast of North America to Alaska.

Beads are one of the most common European items associated with the fur trade of North America. They were meant to function as an ornament, and there are numerous examples of beaded objects from North American fur trade cultures, ranging from clothing and storage bags, to horse tack and musket holsters. It is clear that most American Indian tribes who encountered glass beads incorporated them readily and valued them for many different reasons. As a result, beads acted as a form of currency at places like Fort Vancouver, where the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) imported glass beads by the ton on an annual basis.

Historical evidence shows that the HBC imported beads from England, through several different suppliers who purchased the beads from a variety of manufacturers. It is likely that the majority of these beads were manufactured in Venice, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), and China.

In this article, discover the four bead manufacturing methods used by bead makers in the 19th century, with examples from Fort Vancouver NHS's museum collection.

Soft sole moccasins with beaded decoration from the Columbia River area, ca. 1860s, attributed to the Chinook. Collected by George Gibbs.

US National Museum of Natural History, Anthropology Department, Accession No. 51, U SNM No. E673-0, Smithsonian

Drawn Beads

During the 19th century, glass beads were manufactured in four primary ways. The most common type is known as "drawn." To make a drawn bead, a glass tube was created by heating a large hollow wand of glass and stretching (or drawing) the tube in opposite directions. As the wand stretched in length, the diameter shrank into an appropriate bead size. These tubes were then cut into three-foot lengths, sorted into similar diameters, and eventually cut with a chisel-like tool into individual beads. Typically, these beads were then placed into a heated drum and "hot tumbled" to remove their sharp edges. They could also be faceted with up to 20 individual facets ground onto their surfaces. Finally, drawn beads would be sieved to sort them into various size classes.

End and side views of a drawn bead with chopped ends found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 1024.

NPS Photo, FOVA 36606

This drawn, hot-tumbled bead was found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 1070, 1087.

NPS Photo, FOVA 36915

These white hot-tumbled beads were found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 1003.

NPS Photo, FOVA 52445

This drawn bead has chopped edges and facets. It was found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 1002.

NPS Photo, FOVA 36583

Wound Beads

The next most common bead manufacture type is known as "wound." Wound beads were created individually starting with a wire wand. The bead maker (often called a "lamp winder") would heat individual wands of glass with a lamp, and once molten, wind the glass around the wire wand. Different colors of glass could be used to create a polychrome, or multicolored, bead.

This wound bead was found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 2021.

NPS Photo, FOVA 8864

These blue wound beads were found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 2004, 2005.

NPS Photo, FOVA 36528, FOVA 36532

This beautifully decorated wound bead was found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 2024.

NPS Photo, FOVA 36508

Mandrel Pressed Beads

A less common manufacturing practice was molding beads with a two-part mold. The mold is also known as a mandrel press, producing "mandrel pressed beads." The mold had pins on either side of the mold to form the perforation. This perforation was often left partially filled with glass, and it was necessary to punch through the remnant when the glass had cooled. These beads were commonly faceted to complete their decoration.

These faceted mandrel pressed beads were found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 3003, 3004, 3005.

NPS Photo, FOVA 29978

This faceted mandrel pressed bead was found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 3010.

NPS Photo, FOVA 15184

Blown Beads

Finally, the least common type of bead manufactured during the 19th century - and the least common in the Fort Vancouver NHS museum collection - are blown beads. These beads were formed by glass blowers, using a hollow iron rod upon which a mass, or "gather," of molten glass was formed. Air was blown into the rod; while this inflated gather of molten glass was on the rod, the blower would use tools to elongate, stretch, and decorate an individual bead. These beads have extremely thin walls, are very fragile, and quite rare.

This delicate mold blown bead was found by archaeologists at Fort Vancouver. FOVA Variety # 4002.

NPS Photo, FOVA 10495

The HBC sold beads of all of these types by the "bunche," the pound, or by the yard. Bunche beads are assumed to be relatively large and expensive, whereas beads sold by the pound were likely small, and sorted into discrete sizes. Beads sold by the yard were strung in yard lengths and sold on strands. HBC records show that the beads were organized in these sales categories, then by color, such as, "Crystal," "White," "Amber," "Green Blue," "Blue Opaque," and "Lapis Blue." It is difficult to correlate these historical definitions with the archaeological samples of beads.

According to archaeologist Lester Ross (1976), the most common bead class cataloged at Fort Vancouver is hot tumbled drawn beads (97.6%), with the majority being plain, single, or double layer, in blue (60%) and white (10%). Wound beads account for just over 2% of the fort's assemblage, while mandrel pressed beads account for just 0.16%. Blown beads come in at a miniscule 0.0005% of the assemblage.

The last major analysis of Fort Vancouver beads was completed by Ross in 1990, when he published "Trade Beads from Hudson's Bay Company Fort Vancouver (1829-1860), Vancouver, Washington," in the journal Beads. In this article, he laid out a systematic classification system of the Fort Vancouver bead assemblage. Ross's system is based upon a modification of the system developed by Kenneth Kidd and Martha Kidd (1970), as modified and expanded by Karlis Karklins (1982, 1985).

Ross' article is still the de facto resource for archaeologists when analyzing newly recovered beads at Fort Vancouver. However, the Fort Vancouver NHS Cultural Resources Division created a quick reference guide with large color images to not only enhance our students' and volunteers' ability to analyze beads, but also to offer other interested individuals an aesthetic look at these beautiful objects.

Click here to download the Fort Vancouver Bead Guide.