A-Frame/Wedge tent dimensions

I’ve been looking for similar information but haven’t found any general measurements. Miller’s late painting “Our Camp” might give an idea. But considering when it was painted the accuracy of such details can be questioned.



If I remember it correct the field sketch that later became known as “Picketing the horses” also shows wedge tents. I can only find a later version online where the wedge tents have been replaces by tipis. I think the original sketch is published in the chapter on Rocky Mountain trapper clothing in Book of Buckskinning Vol VI.

Perhaps not a RMFT reference but in Peter Rindisbascher’s painting “Cold night camp on the inhospitable shores of Lake Winnipeg” from 1821 you can see a number of wedge tents with what appears to have the so called “bell back”.


I don’t know if this guy made tents for the military, but in 1832 Robert Campbell paid $2.50 to “Sylvester for making Tents” and then bought tent poles, three slides and the service of “Joining poles” (http://user.xmission.com/~drudy/mtman/html/campacct.html)

Although I didn’t answer any of your questions I hope this helps.

Please share what you come up with.

/Char from Sweden

Here is a link to one of the discussions including the bulk of the good info (ignore the bickering and stupidity)... frontierfolk.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=22410&hilit=tent+sewn

Also, here is some stuff that Jim Mullins sent me that is more fur trade focused...

Now, MOFTQ Some Notes on Tents in the Western Fur Trade also has some measurements, referencing HBC tents, with a ridge pole 7 feet long, two uprights six feet,
using 10 ells of cloth. 10 ells is 37.5' of cloth. They also came in 8 and 12 ells. My math says this 10 ell tent has got to be way wider than
27 inch cloth to make it 7 feet long, but the cloth could be twice as wide as the NWCo 20 ell tent.

furtrade.org/estore/product_info.php?products_id=101&osCsid=a93207e0aeef59b61ae1772d4c822927

Volume 16:Numbers 1-4 1980

RE: 1812 tents


Oct 27, 2009 02:01:51 PM, 1812Civilian@yahoogroups.com wrote:
A number of years ago, I had to review archival documents and paintings to
create somewhat of a continuum on tentage. I never finished the task, but
what I did assemble, I can share with you simply as raw data.
Barry McPherson


FROM THE NARRATIVES??

1) ??each party has a canvas tent, like a soldiers? bell tent with the
top cut off to let the smoke out.? David Thompson circa 1785-1786 quoted in
?DAVID THOMPSON-TRAVELS in WESTERN NORTH AMERICA 1784-1812?,
V.G.Hopwood(editor), Macmillan , Toronto, 1971. p.74.

2) ??my Russia Sheeting Tent was pitched in a low place sheltered from
the Wind,??(1800), ?THE JOURNAL OF ALEXANDER HENRY THE YOUNGER 1799-1814?,
B.M.Gough(editor), Champlain Society, 1988, p.1.

3) ?Every evening I was accustomed to sit up late with a Candle burning
in my Tent?.? Ibid. p. 1 (1800)

4) ?Another of my men, who was out with the hunter in a Leather Tent
last night, got up in his sleep and fell into the fire with his buttocks
foremost.? Ibid., p. 153 (1804)

5) ??the rain had by this time so much imbibed into the Leather Tent,
and the continued dripping of water through it, wet us nearly as much as if
we had been fully exposed to the rain.? Ibid, p. 564, (1811)

6) ?I had a very large military marquise with ropes extending around it
in which I received the chiefs, who had never seen anything like it.? John
McDonald of Garth in 1805 from ?LES BOURGEOIS DE LA COMPAGNIE DU NORD-OUEST?
, L.R. Masson(editor), Antiquarian Press, 1960, p.31.

7) ??about nine o?clock a sudden gust of wind came on which blew the Tent
down and the ridge pole nearly fractured my skull?.? p. 37

?6 Tents square?
?6 Tents 15 ells?, p. 162
?SIMPSON?S ATHABASCA JOURNAL?, E. E. Rich, ed., The Hudson?s Bay Record
Society, London, 1938

8) ?That Gentleman in charge of Districts and posts be directed to use
their utmost endeavors to collect large quantities of Leather (dressed and
parchment) Buffalo Robes, Pack Cords, Snow shoe Line, Sinews, tracking
shoes, Leather Tents, etc. etc., necessary for the trade in many parts of
the country.? ?MINUTES OF COUNCIL NORTHERN DEPARTMENT OF RUPERTLAND 1821 ?
1831?, R. Harvey Fleming, ed., The Champlain Society, 1940.

FROM THE INVENTORIES??

?Invoice of Sundries delivered Algonquin Indians 1800?
1 Canoe Oil Cloth
1 Set Tent poles
1 R. (Russia) Sheeting Tent

?Inventory of goods at Fort William as sold by D. M. MacKenzie to the Earl
of Selkirk, 18th September 1816?
4 tents 20 ells
4 tents 10 ells *

?Athabasca Men?s Equipments 1821?
1 tent 20 ells painted
1 tent 20 ells not painted

* ell = English ell = 45 inches ? 20 ells x 45 inches = 900 inches * 36 = 25
yards [We are assuming that this yardage is the total yardage required to
make a large wedge tent, and further assuming that the Russia sheeting
would, in all likelihood, have been either 36 or 45 inches wide.]


FROM CONTEMPORANEOUS ART WORKS
WEDGE TENTS

1784-JAMES PEACHEY, ?Encampment of the Loyalists at Johnstown?

1821-PETER RINDISBACHER, ?Campement sur les rives in hospitalières du lac
Winipesi? (six large wedge tents clearly illustrated)

1823-PETER RINDISBACHER, ?The Murder of David Tally (Tully) and Family?

1819-GEORGE BACK, 1819 ? 1821, ?Camp Overlooking the Coppermine River?
(three wedge tents of varying sizes)

1826-COL. JOHN BY, R.E., ?Bytown, September, 1826?, McCord Museum, Montreal
(2 very large wedge tents)

1846-PAUL KANE, ?Camping on the Prairie?

1846-PAUL KANE, ?Encampment, Winnipeg River?

1846-HAMPDEN MOODY, ?En Route to the Red River Settlement?

1849-PAUL KANE, 1849 ? 1856, ?Boat Encampment?

1857-W. H. E. NAPIER, ?Lake Superior at the Mouth of the Kamanistiqua River?

1861-WILLIAM BRADFORD, c.1861 ? 1867, ?English Arctic Exhibition in Search
of Franklin?

1862-HENRY YOULE HIND, ?Overlanders of ?62 Sketch Book? (at least three
separate images of a variety of wedge tents)

1870-WM. ARMSTRONG, ?Colonel Wolseley?s Camp, Prince Arthur?s Landing?

1873-F. ARTHUR VERNER, ?Winnipeg on the Red River? (a very nice wedge tent
on the center of a raft)


Flanders/Bell Tents

18__-?Troops Bivouacing?, St. Clair (National Army Museum)

1838-?The Camp of the 43rd Regiment at Niagara Falls, Upper Canada?, James
Bucknall Bucknall Escourt.
1867-Anonymous, ?A Militia Encampment At Fort Wellington,Prescott, Ontario?.


FROM H.B.Co. JOURNALS

The leather obtained by the HBCo. seems to have been acquired through trade.
Any attempt to pin down leather tents through the journals has not yielded
any information whatsoever. I am assuming, given the large number of tents
used by the HBCo., that leather was used as a substitute for Raven Duck
canvas, and I am further assuming that these tents would have been no more
than a wedge of one kind or another.

A worthwhile document is ?Moose Fort Journals 1783 ? 85?, E. E. Rich, ed.,
Hudson?s Bay Record Society, London, 1954.

??the others making Tents of Raven Duck canvas? ? p. 42, April 1784
??much distressed for want of Tenting and shoe leather? ? p. 226
??our Norward gang came without one single tenting or Deerskin this year? ?
p. 305
?They left in a large log tent above 6,000 M. (made) beaver? ? p. 130
?Anthony King, John Leask, and Andrew Bicken making Tents for inland
service? ? April 27, 1785
?Leask making Tents for inland? ? p. 113 (May 6, 1785)


Articles


Tents, ?The Book of The Continental Soldier?, Peterson, Stackpole,
Harrisburg, 1968, ISBN 0-88394-033-7, pages 151-157.

Accommodation, ?Weapons & Equipment of the Napoleonic Wars?,
Haythornthwaite, Blandford, Poole, 1979, ISBN 0 7137 0906 5, pages 148-151.

An Image Of General Washington?s Marquee/Dining Tent can be found in
?General Washington?s Army (2) 1779-1783?, Zlatich & Younghusband, Ospray,
London, 1995, ISBN 1 85532 590 X, page 19.

Great stuff guys! Thanks much.

Isaac, I've toyed with the idea of making one, and as Allen has mentioned, thought about using hemp instead.

The reason behind the my question was that I'm getting a tent for my family and I. Was originally considering getting a pyramid for my family to use at events like the Rendezvous at Fort Union, but then thought that it'd like to have a tent that would be more appropriate. Been looking at the ones from RK Lodges.

Leifer

Having gone from spending most of my time under a tarp or bark to getting a wife and building a bigger hovel of tarp and bark to then having kids and "needing" a proper tent. I purchased a wedge from Tentsmiths. I am VERY happy with this tent and it has worked great. Ultimately though, I know it is not really as correct as I could be. I am a very capable at sewing and have recently decided to sew a tent, if nothing else for when it is just Hilary and I and the kids are elsewhere.

IW