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Tlingit carving of a beaver.
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For information on the Harriman Retraced Expedition e-mail: harriman2001@science.smith.edu |
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For
an Overview Through the years, several
books, science journals and popular magazines have featured
overviews of the Harriman Alaska Expedition. The following
four articles, written for a general audience, give teachers
and students a look at the motives behind, and the outcomes
of the 1899 expedition. "The 1899 Harriman Expedition to
Prince William Sound," by Nancy Lord, Alaska, March
1999. Nancy Lord based this article on her book, Green
Alaska. Her approach is comparative; in both book and
article, Lord relates what the Harriman Expedition visited
in 1899 with her own observations a century later.
"Mr. Harriman Requests the
Pleasure of Your Company,"American Heritage, 1982,
Vol. 33, No. 4, by William H. Goetzmann and Kay Sloan is
also based on a book, Looking Far North. The authors
draw heavily from original sources, including diaries and
contemporary newspaper articles to create a history that is
part science, part personality. The articles includes Arthur
Schlesinger's interview with W. Averell Harriman.
"A Cruise for Rest and
Recreation,"by Robert McCracken Peck, Audubon
Magazine, (1982, Vo. 84, No. 5), is a lively recounting
of the natural history contributions made by the Harriman
Expedition. "The Harriman Alaska Expedition
of 1899," by Alton A. Lindsey in Bioscience, (1978,
Vol. 28, No. 6) takes a look at the identities of the
scientists in the group photograph taken by Curtis at Cape
Fox in 1899. Teachers interested in reinforcing the
importance of photographic documentation might find this
focus useful. Alaska: The Harriman
Expedition, 1899, Dover Publications, Inc., in 1986, is
a one-volume reprint edition of Volumes I and II from the
original expedition. The book includes the John Burroughs
essay on the trip, and chapters on the history and biology
of coastal Alaska written by other 1899 participants. The
text is delightfully readable; Burroughs's lengthy essay
offers students a good look at a 19th century nature
writing, and the other, briefer chapters serve as a starting
point for a comparative study of scientific writing.
Looking Far North: The
Harriman Expedition to Alaska, 1899 by William
H.Goetzmann and Kay Sloan, (Princeton University Press,
1982), was the first modern study of the 1899 expedition,
and is considered the best overview of the trip. Green Alaska: Dreams from the
Far Coast, by Nancy Lord, (Counterpoint Press, 1999) is
both a history of the Harriman Expedition and a meditation
on Alaska's coast today. Lord, who relies heavily on the
Burroughs essay, includes a good deal of contemporary
information on the changing coastal environment.
The more famous of the group --
Burroughs, Muir, and Harriman for example -- have been
written about extensively, and students interested in
biography will have no trouble locating several volumes on
these men. Books about E. H.
Harriman E. H. Harriman: A Biography
by George Kennan, (Houghton Mifflin, 1922) is the
biography authorized and paid for by Mary Harriman after her
husband's death. Kennan's chapter on Alaska would make a
good comparison with Klein's (above); reading both, students
could compare authorized and unauthorized portraits, as well
as early and late 20th century approaches to biography.
Other Biographies John Burroughs, too, is much
written about. Two recent biographies include John
Burroughs: An American Naturalist by Edward Renehan,
(Black Dome Press, 1998) and John Burroughs: The Sage of
Slabsides, by Ginger Wadsworth, (Clarion Books, 1997).
The second title is written for children to age 12, and is
unusual in that it includes quotes from Burroughs's
originals works, something that biographies for younger
readers often fail to do. Edward Curtis, photographer, is
the subject of two recent works that students interested in
photography will find worthwhile. Shadow Catcher: The
Life and Work of Edward S. Curtis, by Laurie Lawlor,
(Walker and Co., 1994) looks at Curtis's life, and discusses
the importance of his early work in Alaska. Shannon Lowery's
Natives of the Far North: Alaska's Vanishing Cultures in
the Eye of Edward Sheriff Curtis, (Stackpole Press,
1994) evaluates Curtis's anthropological approach to
portraiture in Alaska throughout his
career. With a little digging, students
will be able to find biographical information on
less-than-famous historical figures. If it's a scientist
you're interested in, seek out the published scientific
works at college and university libraries, or through an
inter-library loan program. These works often have
biographical notes and sketches. A good example of this is
Ellis Yochelson's The Scientific Ideas of G. K.
Gilbert, (The Geological Society of America, 1980). This
collection of essays includes several academic papers, but
it also has information on Gilbert's life, his early career,
and photographs. Another source of information on
scientific biography is the Biographical Memoir
Series, published annually by the National Academy of
Science. This series is made up of chapter-length
biographies of NAS members published on an annual basis.
Harriman Expedition geologist Charles Palache was featured
in the 1961 volume in this series, botanist William Trelease
in 1962. If a student is interested in
the life story of an artist, a good source would be the
catalogs published in conjunction with an artist's show at a
gallery or museum. These usually include biographical
information, and sometimes a personal note from the artist.
Larger galleries and all museums generally have an archival
collection that is open to researchers.
Tlingit carving of a beaver. "November 30, 1899. It was a
cloudy day but still and mild. I keep pretty well
and am working on my Alaska trip. I have already
written about ten thousand words about it. The
Century paid me seventy-five dollars for two poems,
three times as much as Milton got for Paradise
Lost. The third poem I shall weave into the
prose sketch." John Burroughs writing about
his work after the Harriman Expedition.
For information on the Harriman Retraced Expedition e-mail: harriman2001@science.smith.edu
Books
about the Harriman
Expedition
Biography
Advanced
Student Research
For an Overview
Books about the Harriman
Expedition
Biography
The Life and Legend of E. H. Harriman by Maury
Klein, (University of North Carolina Press, 2000) has a long
and interesting chapter on the expedition. Klein claims that
Harriman's experience in Alaska toughened him against the
challenges he would face in the worlds of railroads and high
finance.
John Muir is, of all the participants, the most widely
written about. Two works that students will find both useful
and entertaining are The Story of My Boyhood and
Youth, Muir's own memoir, (University of Wisconsin
Press) and Stephen Fox's The American Conservation Movement:
John Muir and His Legacy (University of Wisconsin Press).
The first part of Fox's book lays out Muir's full biography;
readers interested in his environmental legacy will find the
full work compelling.Advanced Student Research
Suggestions
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