Sacred to the Memory: Relicization and the Cataloging of Franklin Expedition Objects in Museums

ABSTRACT Between 1818 and 1845, the British Navy sent expeditions to Inuit Nunangat (Canadian Arctic) in search of a passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. In 1845, the Franklin Expedition, consisting of 129 officers, crew, and marines, ended in disaster with all 129 lives lost. When the bodies could not be recovered, the expedition's debris took on a near sacred role in British society. This collection is referred to as the Franklin Relics; akin to those of Christian saints. This process of “Relicization” has resulted in a knowledge gap about the context, uses, and repurposing of these objects that is detrimental to understandings of the expedition, all while enabling the colonial cult of Polar Heroism to persist through interpretations and ongoing colonial narratives embedded in museum records. This paper examines the ways in which these objects have been collected and interpreted through a case study of a small collection of Franklin objects held in the Vancouver Maritime Museum.