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Early Visitors to Southeastern Alaska: Nine Accounts (1978)

Book
Edited by R.N. DeArmond;
Wood Engravings by Dale DeArmond
Published by Alaska Northwest Publishing Co.
214 pages

Editor's note: eleven wood engravings by Dale are illustrated in this book; two are shown on the front and back cover, respectively. Having recently taken classes in 1978 to learn this new medium, these represent the earliest engravings that she produced. Each of the original prints are pulled on handmade, tan paper. Click on any below image below for more information.

From the rear cover:
In the years after Capt. James Cook visited Southeastern Alaska on his third and last great voyage of discovery, numerous explorers and fur traders visited that coast and its myriad islands and interconnected waterways. A few of these early visitors left detailed accounts of their experiences. R.N. DeArmond has gathered a collection of nine of these personal accounts, ranging over the years from 1778 to 1850, and has provided brief introductions to each of the voyagers. In these pages the reader will find action and suspense as gripping as that in any novel, recorded with the freshness and immediacy of the actual participants.

Here are intriguing descriptions of the style of life of the Natives of Southeastern Alaska, their dress, behavior, customs, their shrewd commercial instincts which were a match for any sharp Yankee or Scottish trader. The visitors relate much fascinating detail about the way the hospitable Russian officials and their company lived in that most isolated capital of New Archangel. And there are always the dangers the captains faced in navigating their sailing ships through mostly uncharted, rock-studded channels.

Finally, as an added bonus, the nationally acclaimed Alaskan artist Dale DeArmond has illustrated the accounts with a series of original wood engravings.

Original price: $5.95
ISBN: 0-88240-116-5
ISBN: 9780882401164