Author: William Dunbar
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807131652
Category : Explorers
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
"The team of the "Grand Expedition," as it was optimistically named, was the first to send its findings on the newly annexed territory to the president, who received Dunbar and Hunter's detailed journals with pleasure. They include descriptions of flora and fauna, geology, weather, landscapes, and native peoples and European settlers, as well as astronomical and navigational records that allowed the first accurate English maps of the region and its waterways to be produced. Their scientific experiments conducted at the hot springs may be among the first to discover a microscopic phenomena still under research today."--BOOK JACKET.
The Forgotten Expedition, 1804-1805
Author: William Dunbar
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807131652
Category : Explorers
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
"The team of the "Grand Expedition," as it was optimistically named, was the first to send its findings on the newly annexed territory to the president, who received Dunbar and Hunter's detailed journals with pleasure. They include descriptions of flora and fauna, geology, weather, landscapes, and native peoples and European settlers, as well as astronomical and navigational records that allowed the first accurate English maps of the region and its waterways to be produced. Their scientific experiments conducted at the hot springs may be among the first to discover a microscopic phenomena still under research today."--BOOK JACKET.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807131652
Category : Explorers
Languages : en
Pages : 286
Book Description
"The team of the "Grand Expedition," as it was optimistically named, was the first to send its findings on the newly annexed territory to the president, who received Dunbar and Hunter's detailed journals with pleasure. They include descriptions of flora and fauna, geology, weather, landscapes, and native peoples and European settlers, as well as astronomical and navigational records that allowed the first accurate English maps of the region and its waterways to be produced. Their scientific experiments conducted at the hot springs may be among the first to discover a microscopic phenomena still under research today."--BOOK JACKET.
The Forgotten Expedition, 1804–1805
Author: Trey Berry
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807159751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
At the same time that he charged Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the great Northwest, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned William Dunbar and George Hunter to make a parallel journey through the southern unmapped regions of the Louisiana Purchase. From October 16, 1804, to January 26, 1805, Dunbar and Hunter, both renowned scientists, made their way through what is now northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas, ascending the Ouachita River and investigating the natural curiosity called "the hot springs." The Forgotten Expedition, 1804-1805 represents the first time that their daily journals -- which describe the flora and fauna, geology, weather, and native peoples they encountered along the way -- appear in a single volume. The team of the "Grand Expedition," as it was optimistically named, was the first to send its findings on the newly annexed territory to the president, who received Dunbar and Hunter's detailed journals with pleasure. They include descriptions of flora and fauna, geology, weather, landscapes, and native peoples and European settlers, as well as astronomical and navigational records that allowed the first accurate English maps of the region and its waterways to be produced. Their scientific experiments conducted at the hot springs may be among the first to discover a microscopic phenomena still under research today. Extensively annotated and carefully researched, The Forgotten Expedition completes the picture of the Louisiana Purchase presented through the journals of explorers Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike, and Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis. It is a treasure of the early natural history of North America and the first depiction of this new U.S. southern frontier.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807159751
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
At the same time that he charged Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the great Northwest, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned William Dunbar and George Hunter to make a parallel journey through the southern unmapped regions of the Louisiana Purchase. From October 16, 1804, to January 26, 1805, Dunbar and Hunter, both renowned scientists, made their way through what is now northern Louisiana and southern Arkansas, ascending the Ouachita River and investigating the natural curiosity called "the hot springs." The Forgotten Expedition, 1804-1805 represents the first time that their daily journals -- which describe the flora and fauna, geology, weather, and native peoples they encountered along the way -- appear in a single volume. The team of the "Grand Expedition," as it was optimistically named, was the first to send its findings on the newly annexed territory to the president, who received Dunbar and Hunter's detailed journals with pleasure. They include descriptions of flora and fauna, geology, weather, landscapes, and native peoples and European settlers, as well as astronomical and navigational records that allowed the first accurate English maps of the region and its waterways to be produced. Their scientific experiments conducted at the hot springs may be among the first to discover a microscopic phenomena still under research today. Extensively annotated and carefully researched, The Forgotten Expedition completes the picture of the Louisiana Purchase presented through the journals of explorers Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike, and Thomas Freeman and Peter Custis. It is a treasure of the early natural history of North America and the first depiction of this new U.S. southern frontier.
Arkansas Travelers
Author: Andrew J. Milson
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
ISBN: 1610756657
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
Winner, 2020 J.G. Ragsdale Book Award from the Arkansas Historical Association “I reckon stranger you have not been used much to traveling in the woods,” a hunter remarked to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft as he trekked through the Ozark backcountry in late 1818. The ensuing exchange is one of many compelling encounters between Arkansas travelers and settlers depicted in Arkansas Travelers: Geographies of Exploration and Perception, 1804–1834. This book is the first to integrate the stories of four travelers who explored Arkansas during the transformative period between the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and statehood in 1836: William Dunbar, Thomas Nuttall, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, and George William Featherstonhaugh. In addition to gathering their tales of treacherous rivers, drunken scoundrels, and repulsive food, historian and geographer Andrew J. Milson explores the impact such travel narratives have had on geographical understandings of Arkansas places. Using the language in each traveler’s narrative, Milson suggests, and the book includes, new maps that trace these perceptions, illustrating not just the lands traversed, but the way travelers experienced and perceived place. By taking a geographical approach to the history of these spaces, Arkansas Travelers offers a deeper understanding—a deeper map—of Arkansas.
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
ISBN: 1610756657
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 293
Book Description
Winner, 2020 J.G. Ragsdale Book Award from the Arkansas Historical Association “I reckon stranger you have not been used much to traveling in the woods,” a hunter remarked to Henry Rowe Schoolcraft as he trekked through the Ozark backcountry in late 1818. The ensuing exchange is one of many compelling encounters between Arkansas travelers and settlers depicted in Arkansas Travelers: Geographies of Exploration and Perception, 1804–1834. This book is the first to integrate the stories of four travelers who explored Arkansas during the transformative period between the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 and statehood in 1836: William Dunbar, Thomas Nuttall, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, and George William Featherstonhaugh. In addition to gathering their tales of treacherous rivers, drunken scoundrels, and repulsive food, historian and geographer Andrew J. Milson explores the impact such travel narratives have had on geographical understandings of Arkansas places. Using the language in each traveler’s narrative, Milson suggests, and the book includes, new maps that trace these perceptions, illustrating not just the lands traversed, but the way travelers experienced and perceived place. By taking a geographical approach to the history of these spaces, Arkansas Travelers offers a deeper understanding—a deeper map—of Arkansas.
Wanderer on the American Frontier
Author: John Maley
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806162422
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
For nearly two hundred years, a fragment of the journal of John Maley, an obscure explorer on the American frontier, resided at Yale University and was treated with some skepticism by historians. It was only in 2012, when the first half of the manuscript turned up at a barn sale in Pennsylvania and was acquired by Southern Methodist University’s DeGolyer Library, that the full story of Maley’s travels could be pieced together. Wanderer on the American Frontier makes the complete journal available for the first time, allowing readers to follow a contemporary of Lewis and Clark on his journey through the Ohio, Mississippi, and Red River valleys, and to reassess the account’s authenticity. Between 1808 and 1813, Maley covered more than 16,000 miles through thirteen present-day states. Much of that travel took him beyond the fringes of civilization, and his journal offers some of the earliest descriptions of the Ozark Plateau, the Ouachita Mountains, and the upper reaches of the Red River. His account also provides a firsthand look at life on the frontier in the tumultuous years following the Louisiana Purchase. Editor F. Andrew Dowdy has carefully retraced Maley’s steps and, with extensive use of maps, has reconciled some of the journal’s more confusing passages to give readers clear modern-day reference points. Numerous annotations and appendices provide necessary historical context, from the link between Maley’s 1809 Indiana copper exploration and the Treaty of Fort Wayne, to the ways his 1811 foray into Spanish Texas presaged further filibusters there during the Mexican War for Independence. The fascinating tale of one of the wider-ranging explorers in American history, Wanderer on the American Frontier is an invaluable resource that provides a unique window on the West in the early nineteenth century.
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806162422
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
For nearly two hundred years, a fragment of the journal of John Maley, an obscure explorer on the American frontier, resided at Yale University and was treated with some skepticism by historians. It was only in 2012, when the first half of the manuscript turned up at a barn sale in Pennsylvania and was acquired by Southern Methodist University’s DeGolyer Library, that the full story of Maley’s travels could be pieced together. Wanderer on the American Frontier makes the complete journal available for the first time, allowing readers to follow a contemporary of Lewis and Clark on his journey through the Ohio, Mississippi, and Red River valleys, and to reassess the account’s authenticity. Between 1808 and 1813, Maley covered more than 16,000 miles through thirteen present-day states. Much of that travel took him beyond the fringes of civilization, and his journal offers some of the earliest descriptions of the Ozark Plateau, the Ouachita Mountains, and the upper reaches of the Red River. His account also provides a firsthand look at life on the frontier in the tumultuous years following the Louisiana Purchase. Editor F. Andrew Dowdy has carefully retraced Maley’s steps and, with extensive use of maps, has reconciled some of the journal’s more confusing passages to give readers clear modern-day reference points. Numerous annotations and appendices provide necessary historical context, from the link between Maley’s 1809 Indiana copper exploration and the Treaty of Fort Wayne, to the ways his 1811 foray into Spanish Texas presaged further filibusters there during the Mexican War for Independence. The fascinating tale of one of the wider-ranging explorers in American history, Wanderer on the American Frontier is an invaluable resource that provides a unique window on the West in the early nineteenth century.
A Savory History of Arkansas Delta Food: Potlikker, Coon Suppers & Chocolate Gravy
Author: Cindy Grisham
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625840489
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 131
Book Description
Up and down the Arkansas Delta, food tells a story. Whether the time Bill Clinton nearly died on the way to a coon dinner or the connections made over biscuits and gravy or the more common chicken and dumpling feuds, the area is no stranger to history. One of America's last frontiers, it was settled in the late nineteenth century by a rough-and-tumble collection of timber men, sharecroppers and entrepreneurs from all over the world who embraced the traditional foodways and added their own twists. Today, the Arkansas Delta is the nation's largest producer of rice and adds other crops like catfish and sweet potatoes. Join author Cindy Grisham for this delicious look into Delta cuisine.
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625840489
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 131
Book Description
Up and down the Arkansas Delta, food tells a story. Whether the time Bill Clinton nearly died on the way to a coon dinner or the connections made over biscuits and gravy or the more common chicken and dumpling feuds, the area is no stranger to history. One of America's last frontiers, it was settled in the late nineteenth century by a rough-and-tumble collection of timber men, sharecroppers and entrepreneurs from all over the world who embraced the traditional foodways and added their own twists. Today, the Arkansas Delta is the nation's largest producer of rice and adds other crops like catfish and sweet potatoes. Join author Cindy Grisham for this delicious look into Delta cuisine.
William Dunbar
Author: Arthur H. DeRosierJr.
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 081318973X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 363
Book Description
Scottish-born William Dunbar (1750–1810) is recognized by Mississippi and Southwest historians as one of the most successful planters, agricultural innovators, explorers, and scientists to emerge from the Mississippi Territory. Despite his successes, however, history books abridge his contributions to America's early national years to a few passing sentences or footnotes. William Dunbar: Scientific Pioneer of the Old Southwest rectifies past neglect, paying tribute to a man whose life was driven by the need to know and the willingness to suffer in pursuit of knowledge. From the beginning, research, contemplation, and scholarship formed the template by which Dunbar would structure his life. His mother's insistence on education motivated him throughout his youth, and in 1771, he sailed to America, prepared to seize any and all opportunities. Settling in the Mississippi territory, Dunbar embarked on the endeavors that would soon gain him renown. He surveyed the boundary between Spanish West Florida and the United States and contributed heavily to the rise of cotton culture through his inventions and innovations in agricultural technology. In 1804, at the same time that Lewis and Clark were making their way up the Missouri River, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Dunbar—now a fellow member of the prestigious American Philosophical Society—to lead a similar exploration of the southern Louisiana Purchase territory. The 103-day expedition captured the imagination of Americans looking to move westward and yielded the first information about the geographical, geological, and meteorological characteristics of the old Southwest. Arthur H. DeRosier Jr. traces Dunbar's life from his ambition as a youth to his development into a man recognized by his contemporaries as a leader in many scientific fields. Drawing upon the private journal of Dunbar's granddaughter Virginia Dunbar McQueen and neglected historical annals, William Dunbar examines Dunbar's public and private life, the scope of his interests, and the lasting contributions he left to a country and people he loved.
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 081318973X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 363
Book Description
Scottish-born William Dunbar (1750–1810) is recognized by Mississippi and Southwest historians as one of the most successful planters, agricultural innovators, explorers, and scientists to emerge from the Mississippi Territory. Despite his successes, however, history books abridge his contributions to America's early national years to a few passing sentences or footnotes. William Dunbar: Scientific Pioneer of the Old Southwest rectifies past neglect, paying tribute to a man whose life was driven by the need to know and the willingness to suffer in pursuit of knowledge. From the beginning, research, contemplation, and scholarship formed the template by which Dunbar would structure his life. His mother's insistence on education motivated him throughout his youth, and in 1771, he sailed to America, prepared to seize any and all opportunities. Settling in the Mississippi territory, Dunbar embarked on the endeavors that would soon gain him renown. He surveyed the boundary between Spanish West Florida and the United States and contributed heavily to the rise of cotton culture through his inventions and innovations in agricultural technology. In 1804, at the same time that Lewis and Clark were making their way up the Missouri River, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Dunbar—now a fellow member of the prestigious American Philosophical Society—to lead a similar exploration of the southern Louisiana Purchase territory. The 103-day expedition captured the imagination of Americans looking to move westward and yielded the first information about the geographical, geological, and meteorological characteristics of the old Southwest. Arthur H. DeRosier Jr. traces Dunbar's life from his ambition as a youth to his development into a man recognized by his contemporaries as a leader in many scientific fields. Drawing upon the private journal of Dunbar's granddaughter Virginia Dunbar McQueen and neglected historical annals, William Dunbar examines Dunbar's public and private life, the scope of his interests, and the lasting contributions he left to a country and people he loved.
Spanish New Orleans
Author: John Eugene Rodriguez
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807175013
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Book Description
John Eugene Rodriguez’s Spanish New Orleans is the first comprehensive academic analysis of how Spain governed the largest imperial city in its North American empire. Rodriguez suggests that the Spanish empire was, at least on the northern edge, slipping into economic and perhaps political independence a decade before the overthrow of its Bourbon Spanish rulers in 1808. His work questions that of earlier historians, who argued that Latin America was fundamentally conservative and complaisant under Bourbon rule. Instead, Spanish New Orleans shows that in the capital of Louisiana, Spanish rulers were slowly losing control of three interwoven aspects of the city: demography, trade, and political discourse. Rodriguez demonstrates how the multiethnic, multilingual population of the city played a central role in encouraging trans-imperial free trade and especially trade with the United States, to the point of economic dependence. This dependence in turn prompted the Bourbon governors in New Orleans to negotiate both economic and political discourse in a city that was steadily moving closer in every way to the United States. Far from being a peripheral city in a peripheral colony, by 1803 New Orleans was reshaping the Spanish empire beyond the comprehension of the Spanish king. Chapters on the city’s foundational merchants, literacy, and the judicial system all point to the unique character of this imperial city on the American periphery. This study marks new methodological paths for historians of Latin America and early U.S. history by making use of enormous data compilations on population, ethnicity, and economics. Rodriguez also analyzes previously ignored eighteenth-century Spanish-language documents, including petitions, postal records, and military rosters, and engages underutilized tools such as signature analysis. Through his use of original sources and innovative methodologies, Rodriguez makes new and intriguing comparisons between New Orleans and other contemporary Spanish imperial cities as well as cities in the then-expanding United States. In Spanish New Orleans, Rodriguez goes beyond simply positioning New Orleans within Spanish imperial history. Taking a broader view, he considers what Spanish New Orleans reveals about the challenges and opportunities faced by the Spanish Bourbon empire, and he sheds light on how a new North American empire could so quickly and easily absorb a Spanish city.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807175013
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281
Book Description
John Eugene Rodriguez’s Spanish New Orleans is the first comprehensive academic analysis of how Spain governed the largest imperial city in its North American empire. Rodriguez suggests that the Spanish empire was, at least on the northern edge, slipping into economic and perhaps political independence a decade before the overthrow of its Bourbon Spanish rulers in 1808. His work questions that of earlier historians, who argued that Latin America was fundamentally conservative and complaisant under Bourbon rule. Instead, Spanish New Orleans shows that in the capital of Louisiana, Spanish rulers were slowly losing control of three interwoven aspects of the city: demography, trade, and political discourse. Rodriguez demonstrates how the multiethnic, multilingual population of the city played a central role in encouraging trans-imperial free trade and especially trade with the United States, to the point of economic dependence. This dependence in turn prompted the Bourbon governors in New Orleans to negotiate both economic and political discourse in a city that was steadily moving closer in every way to the United States. Far from being a peripheral city in a peripheral colony, by 1803 New Orleans was reshaping the Spanish empire beyond the comprehension of the Spanish king. Chapters on the city’s foundational merchants, literacy, and the judicial system all point to the unique character of this imperial city on the American periphery. This study marks new methodological paths for historians of Latin America and early U.S. history by making use of enormous data compilations on population, ethnicity, and economics. Rodriguez also analyzes previously ignored eighteenth-century Spanish-language documents, including petitions, postal records, and military rosters, and engages underutilized tools such as signature analysis. Through his use of original sources and innovative methodologies, Rodriguez makes new and intriguing comparisons between New Orleans and other contemporary Spanish imperial cities as well as cities in the then-expanding United States. In Spanish New Orleans, Rodriguez goes beyond simply positioning New Orleans within Spanish imperial history. Taking a broader view, he considers what Spanish New Orleans reveals about the challenges and opportunities faced by the Spanish Bourbon empire, and he sheds light on how a new North American empire could so quickly and easily absorb a Spanish city.
Essay on the Geography of Plants
Author: Alexander von Humboldt
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226360687
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
The legacy of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) looms large over the natural sciences. His 1799–1804 research expedition to Central and South America with botanist Aimé Bonpland set the course for the great scientific surveys of the nineteenth century, and inspired such essayists and artists as Emerson, Goethe, Thoreau, Poe, and Church. The chronicles of the expedition were published in Paris after Humboldt’s return, and first among them was the 1807 “Essay on the Geography of Plants.” Among the most cited writings in natural history, after the works of Darwin and Wallace, this work appears here for the first time in a complete English-language translation. Covering far more than its title implies, it represents the first articulation of an integrative “science of the earth, ” encompassing most of today’s environmental sciences. Ecologist Stephen T. Jackson introduces the treatise and explains its enduring significance two centuries after its publication.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226360687
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
The legacy of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) looms large over the natural sciences. His 1799–1804 research expedition to Central and South America with botanist Aimé Bonpland set the course for the great scientific surveys of the nineteenth century, and inspired such essayists and artists as Emerson, Goethe, Thoreau, Poe, and Church. The chronicles of the expedition were published in Paris after Humboldt’s return, and first among them was the 1807 “Essay on the Geography of Plants.” Among the most cited writings in natural history, after the works of Darwin and Wallace, this work appears here for the first time in a complete English-language translation. Covering far more than its title implies, it represents the first articulation of an integrative “science of the earth, ” encompassing most of today’s environmental sciences. Ecologist Stephen T. Jackson introduces the treatise and explains its enduring significance two centuries after its publication.
Before the West Was West
Author: Amy T. Hamilton
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803265328
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 457
Book Description
Before the West Was West examines the extent to which scholars have engaged in-depth with pre-1800 “western” texts and asks what we mean by “western” American literature in the first place and when that designation originated. Calling into question the implicit temporal boundaries of the “American West” in literature, a literature often viewed as having commenced only at the beginning of the 1800s, Before the West Was West explores the concrete, meaningful connections between different texts as well as the development of national ideologies and mythologies. Examining pre-nineteenth-century writings that do not fit conceptions of the Wild West or of cowboys, cattle ranching, and the Pony Express, these thirteen essays demonstrate that no single, unified idea or geography defines the American West. Contributors investigate texts ranging from the Norse Vinland Sagas and Mary Rowlandson’s famous captivity narrative to early Spanish and French exploration narratives, an eighteenth-century English novel, and a play by Aphra Behn. Through its examination of the disparate and multifaceted body of literature that arises from a broad array of cultural backgrounds and influences, Before the West Was West apprehends the literary West in temporal as well as spatial and cultural terms and poses new questions about “westernness” and its literary representation.
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 0803265328
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 457
Book Description
Before the West Was West examines the extent to which scholars have engaged in-depth with pre-1800 “western” texts and asks what we mean by “western” American literature in the first place and when that designation originated. Calling into question the implicit temporal boundaries of the “American West” in literature, a literature often viewed as having commenced only at the beginning of the 1800s, Before the West Was West explores the concrete, meaningful connections between different texts as well as the development of national ideologies and mythologies. Examining pre-nineteenth-century writings that do not fit conceptions of the Wild West or of cowboys, cattle ranching, and the Pony Express, these thirteen essays demonstrate that no single, unified idea or geography defines the American West. Contributors investigate texts ranging from the Norse Vinland Sagas and Mary Rowlandson’s famous captivity narrative to early Spanish and French exploration narratives, an eighteenth-century English novel, and a play by Aphra Behn. Through its examination of the disparate and multifaceted body of literature that arises from a broad array of cultural backgrounds and influences, Before the West Was West apprehends the literary West in temporal as well as spatial and cultural terms and poses new questions about “westernness” and its literary representation.
Relic Hunters
Author: James E. Snead
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192508423
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Relic Hunters is a study of the complex relationship between the people of 19th century America with the material antiquities of North America's indigenous past. As scholars struggled to explain their existence, farmers in Ohio were plowing up arrowheads, building their houses atop burial mounds, and developing their own ideas about antiquity. They experienced the new country as a "place with history" reflected in material traces that became important touch points for scientific knowledge, but for American cultural identity as well. Relic Hunters traces the encounter with American antiquities from 1812 to 1879. This encompasses the period when archaeology took root in the United States: it also spans the "deep settlement" of the Midwest and sectional strife both before and after the Civil War. At the center of the story is the first iconic find of American archaeology, known as "the Kentucky Mummy." Discovered deep in a cavern, this dessicated burial became the subject of scholarly competition, traveling exhibitions, and even poetry. The book uses the theme of the Kentucky Mummy to structure the broader story of the public and American antiquities, a tour that leads through rural museums, mound excavations, lecture tours, shady deals, and ultimately into the famous attic of the Smithsonian Institution. Ultimately, Relic Hunters is a story of the American landscape, and of the role of archaeology in shaping that place. Derived from letters, memoranda, and reports found in more than a dozen archives, this is a unique account of a critical encounter that shaped local and national identity in ways that are only now being explored.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192508423
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369
Book Description
Relic Hunters is a study of the complex relationship between the people of 19th century America with the material antiquities of North America's indigenous past. As scholars struggled to explain their existence, farmers in Ohio were plowing up arrowheads, building their houses atop burial mounds, and developing their own ideas about antiquity. They experienced the new country as a "place with history" reflected in material traces that became important touch points for scientific knowledge, but for American cultural identity as well. Relic Hunters traces the encounter with American antiquities from 1812 to 1879. This encompasses the period when archaeology took root in the United States: it also spans the "deep settlement" of the Midwest and sectional strife both before and after the Civil War. At the center of the story is the first iconic find of American archaeology, known as "the Kentucky Mummy." Discovered deep in a cavern, this dessicated burial became the subject of scholarly competition, traveling exhibitions, and even poetry. The book uses the theme of the Kentucky Mummy to structure the broader story of the public and American antiquities, a tour that leads through rural museums, mound excavations, lecture tours, shady deals, and ultimately into the famous attic of the Smithsonian Institution. Ultimately, Relic Hunters is a story of the American landscape, and of the role of archaeology in shaping that place. Derived from letters, memoranda, and reports found in more than a dozen archives, this is a unique account of a critical encounter that shaped local and national identity in ways that are only now being explored.