Northwest Passage: The Quest for an Arctic Route to the East
by Edward Struzik
from Key Porter Books
Epic Wanderer: David Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West
by D'Arcy Jenish
from University of Nebraska Press
Less celebrated than his contemporaries Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Thompson spent nearly three decades, beginning in 1784, surveying and mapping more than 1.2 million square miles of largely uncharted Indian territory. Traveling across the prairies, over the Rockies, and on to the Pacific, Thompson transformed the raw data of his explorations into a map of the Canadian West. Measuring ten feet by seven feet and laid out with astonishing accuracy, the map became essential to the politicians and diplomats who would decide the future of the rich and promising lands of the West. Yet its creator worked without personal glory and died in penniless obscurity.
Drawing extensively on Thompson’s personal journals, illustrated with his detailed sketches, intricate notebook pages, and the map itself, Epic Wanderer charts the life of a man who risked everything in the name of scientific advancement and exploration.
Keepers of the Record: The History of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives
by Deidre Simmons
from McGill-Queen's University Press
The Hudson's Bay Company Archives is one of the world's most complete archival collections and a national treasure. Protected in the vaults of the Archives of Manitoba, its documents trace the history of the fur trade, North American exploration, the growth of a retail empire, and the evolution of Canada as a country. Keepers of the Record offers the first comprehensive look at the development of the Hudson's Bay Company Archives over three centuries. Deidre Simmons places the archives within the historical context of the Company, England, and Canada, as well as British and Canadian archival traditions. Keepers of the Record is abundantly illustrated with archival photographs that evoke the texture and slightly musty smell of soft leather and crisp vellum and the ghostly presence of the people who created the pristine script, writing by candlelight in unheated (or overheated, depending on the season) dwellings in the wilderness of Hudson Bay or in the centre of London.
Antoine Robidoux and Fort Uncompahgre
by Ken Reyher
from Western Reflections Publishing Co.
Antoine Robidoux, equally at home in the mountains or the Santa Fe governor's home, built a vast fur trading empire that covered modern day western Colorado and eastern Utah. In his book, Ken Reyher tracks the life of a young adventurer who heads West to eventually build a trading empire that successfully challenged even the powerful Hudson Bay Company. As quickly as he rose, his world came crashing down, and one of the great chapters of the early west came to an end.
Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition
by Scott Cookman
from Wiley
By the mid-19th century, after decades of polar exploration, the fabled Northwest Passage seemed within reach. In 1845 the British Admiralty assembled the largest expedition yet, refitting two ships with steam engines and placing the seasoned if somewhat lackluster Sir John Franklin in command of the 128-man expedition. After sailing into Baffin Bay, they were never heard from again.
Drawing on early accounts from relief expeditions as well as recent archeological evidence, Scott Cookman reconstructs a chronicle of the expedition in Ice Blink. Cookman, a journalist with articles in Field & Stream and other magazines, excels when firmly grounded in the harrowing reality of 19th-century Arctic exploration. When he speculates about what happened to the Franklin expedition, however, he is on less solid ground and his writing suffers.
Particularly overwrought is the promised "frightening new explanation" for the expedition's demise. Cookman suggests that it was caused by the "grotesque handiwork" of an "evil" man, Stephan Goldner, who had supplied its canned foods. This is hardly new. As early as 1852, investigators determined that the expedition's canned goods were probably inferior and canceled provisioning contracts with Goldner. How a hundred men survived for nearly three years despite lead poisoning and botulism remains a mystery. In the end, as Cookman himself acknowledges, the expedition was ultimately doomed by its reliance on untested technology such as the steam engine, armor plating, and canned provisions. These criticisms aside, Ice Blink is an interesting narrative of this enduring symbol of polar exploration and disaster. --Pete Holloran
"Absorbing.artfully narrat[es] a possible course of events in the expedition's demise, based on the one official note and bits of debris (including evidence of cannibalism) found by searchers sent to look for Franklin in the 1850s. Adventure readers will flock to this fine regaling of the enduring mystery surrounding the best-known disaster in Arctic exploration."--Booklist
"A great Victorian adventure story rediscovered and re-presented for a more enquiring time."--The Scotsman
"A vivid, sometimes harrowing chronicle of miscalculation and overweening Victorian pride in untried technology.a work of great compassion."--The Australian
It has been called the greatest disaster in the history of polar exploration. Led by Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, two state-of-the-art ships and 128 hand-picked men----the best and the brightest of the British empire----sailed from Greenland on July 12, 1845 in search of the elusive Northwest Passage. Fourteen days later, they were spotted for the last time by two whalers in Baffin Bay. What happened to these ships----and to the 129 men on board----has remained one of the most enduring mysteries in the annals of exploration. Drawing upon original research, Scott Cookman provides an unforgettable account of the ill-fated Franklin expedition, vividly reconstructing the lives of those touched by the voyage and its disaster. But, more importantly, he suggests a human culprit and presents a terrifying new explanation for what triggered the deaths of Franklin and all 128 of his men. This is a remarkable and shocking historical account of true-life suspense and intrigue.
First Across the Continent (The Oklahoma Western Biographies , Vol 14)
by Barry Gough
from University of Oklahoma Press
The first white man to cross North America, Scottish-born Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820) was typical of his generation of explorers: this bold adventurer who surveyed the untamed wilderness with impressive accuracy was also a hardheaded businessman who ventured into unknown Canadian territory in search of profits from fur trading. Canadian historian Barry Gough admires Mackenzie's toughness and daring without glossing over the towering ego and knack for self-promotion that won him a knighthood from England in 1802. First Across the Continent is another enjoyable entry in the University of Oklahoma's Western Biographies series.
Polar Passage: The Historic First Sail Through the Northwest Passage
Superior Rendezvous-Place: Fort William in the Canadian Fur Trade
by Jean Morrison
from Natural Heritage Books
Jean Morrison has written a fascinating and important book, full of drama and colourful historical figures. Rare paintings, drawings, maps and archival photographs complement her impeccable research and lively text. Superior Rendezvous-Place encompasses the French predecessors of Fort William, Native Peoples of the time and the evolution of the fur trade, with an emphasis on the North West Company era.
This most important work concludes with details of the reconstruction of the fort and the development of Old Fort William, one of Ontario's "must see" attractions.
"Jean Morrison is a natural story teller, and hers is an essential historical document in the compelling history of Fort William, once the centre of the North American commercial universe."
- Peter C. Newman, author of Caesars of the Wilderness
"This book is wonderful reading. Jean Morrison's prose is beautiful."
- Carolyn Podruchny, fur trade historian, Newberry Library, Chicago
Across the Top of the World: The Quest for the Northwest Passage
by James P. Delgado
from Facts on File
After Columbus found his voyage to Asia unexpectedly blocked by the New World, one driving goal of explorers was to find a way around it. To the south, the Strait of Magellan is one of the most difficult journeys in the world; it seemed only reasonable to expect that a more comfortable alternative would lie to the north.
In the event, of course, the world is not designed for human comfort, and the Northwest Passage is incredibly arduous and not particularly useful. But the search motivated Arctic exploration and adventure for hundreds of years, and inspired many gripping or tragic adventures. Arctic archeologist James Delgado relates these tales--the voyages of the Norsemen, Henry Hudson, Sir John Franklin, and others--with a rare combination of verve, historical context, and lots of illustrations. Maps, photos, and images from different eras make Across the Top of the World a fascinating book for browsing or for concentrated reading. It's an invaluable companion--reference, atlas, and history--to any other book about polar exploration and adventure. --Mary Ellen Curtin
Across the Top of the World is a vivid retelling of one of the most enduring quests in the history of exploration and discovery--the Northwest Passage. It covers the earliest endeavors in the sixteenth century, the many ill-fated expeditions that followed, the successful crossing in 1905, and the scientific work conducted in the Northwest Passage today. The book is beautifully illustrated and gives readers a true sense of the harsh realities of the landscapes and seascapes traversed. Among the books many highlights are the use of explorers' published accounts, the ill-fated Franklin Expedition in 1845-1847, historic and contemporary color photographs of significant artifacts, and contemporary images of the Northwest Passage from the air, land, and water.
Les Sauvages Am?ricains: Representations of Native Americans in French and English Colonial Literature
by Gordon M. Sayre
from The University of North Carolina Press
Algonquian and Iroquois natives of the American Northeast were described in great detail by colonial explorers who ventured into the region in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Beginning with the writings of John Smith and Samuel de Champlain, Gordon Sayre analyzes French and English accounts of Native Americans to reveal the rhetorical codes by which their cultures were represented and the influence that these images of Indians had on colonial and modern American society. By emphasizing the work of Pierre François-Xavier Charlevoix, Joseph-François Lafitau, and Baron de Lahontan, among others, Sayre highlights the important contribution that French explorers and ethnographers made to colonial literature.
Sayre's interdisciplinary approach draws on anthropology, cultural studies, and literary methodologies. He cautions against dismissing these colonial texts as purveyors of ethnocentric stereotypes, asserting that they offer insights into Native American cultures. Furthermore, early accounts of American Indians reveal Europeans' serious examination of their own customs and values: Sayre demonstrates how encounters with natives' wampum belts, tattoos, and pelt garments, for example, forced colonists to question the nature of money, writing, and clothing; and how the Indians' techniques of warfare and practice of adopting prisoners led to new concepts of cultural identity and inspired key themes in the European enlightenment and American individualism.
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