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Papers on the North American Fur Trade e|t«'^9'?#9e^ ^^ sw^ Papers on the North American Fur Trade ON NOVEMBER 1^, 1965, the Minnesota Trade" is placed in an introductory position, Historical Society in co-operation with the although his paper was read on the final Hudson's Bay Company, the James Ford day of the conference. The essays that fol­ Bell Foundation, Albrecht Furs, and the St. low deal with the three great fur trading Paul Council of Arts and Sciences sponsored companies of North America, representing an international conference on the North three nations and widely varying techniques American fur trade. Participating in it ivere of operation, as re-examined in the light of scliolars, writers, and authorities on fur trade recent historical research. Next are two history drawn from many parts of the United brief picture essays, both based upon slide States and Carmda. England ivas repre­ talks which traced the surviving physical sented by Professor Kenneth G. Davies of evidences of the fur trade era in Canada the University of Bristol and the Hudson's and the United States. The final group of Bay Record Society. articles presents the viewpoints of allied In all, twenty-eight .speakers addressed disciplines: ethnohistory, archaeology, and the conference; the nine essays presented economic history. Each gave rise to an un­ here have been selected from among their usual amount of discussion and comment papers. The number to he published was among the conference participants. limited only hy the editorial time and the Those papers which because of space and space available, and the choice was hard to time limitations could not he included were: make. A variety of viewpoints was repre­ Victor H. Cahalane, "Wildlife, Ecology, and sented at the conference — tho.se of the li­ the Fur Trade"; Kenneth Dawson, "Archaeo­ brarian, the archivist, the naturalist, the ar­ logical Investigation at the Site of the Long- chaeologist, the econoynist, the ethnologist, lac Trading Post"; John C. Ewers, "Some the historic sites administrator, the geogra­ Problems in the Study of the Indian Side of pher, and others, including, of course, the the Fur Trade"; LeRoy R. Hafen, "The Fur traditional historian. The resulting papers Trade Rendezvous of the Central Rockies"; did not fit a neat pattern; each approached Kenneth E. Kidd, "The Functions of a Fur the fur trade and its history from a somewhat Trade Research Center"; W. Kaye Lamb, different angle. The total picture was some­ "Bibliographical Control of Fur Trade times illuminating, sometimes confusing, and Sources"; John Francis McDermott, "A Pic­ sometimes contradictory, yet now and then torial Archive for the Fur Trade"; Valentine the crosscurrents brought into sharp focus McKay, "Personal Reminiscences of a Fur the existence of unexplored fields. New prob­ Trader"; Eric W. Morse, "Fur Trade Main lems of scope and definition were raised; Line — Lachine to Athabasca"; Doyce B. many fresh lines of research were pointed Nunis, Jr., "The Role of the Fur Trade in out; and untapped sources of knowledge Shaping Anglo-American Affairs, 1783-1784: were suggested. It is hoped that the selec­ Furs, Forts, Indians, and Evacuation," and tion given here will reflect some of this "Needs and Opportunities for Fur Trade Re­ interplay. search"; Grace Lee Nute, "Men of the Fur Dale L. Morgan's discerning survey of Trade"; Walter O'Meara, "The Women of "Some Problems in the History of the Fur the Fur Traders"; John Parker, "The Fur Winter 1966 149 Trade and the Emerging Geography of with gratifying results. In less than a year, North America, 1600-1800"; Francis Paul two major collections have been micro­ Prucha, "The United States Army and the filmed: One, an extraordinary group of Alex­ Fur Trade"; G. Hubert Smith, "The Build­ ander Mackenzie papers, was located in ings of the Fur Trade"; John E. Sunder, Quebec City. The institution owning the "Problems and Opportunities in Fur Trade papers graciously permitted the society to Research"; Waldemar F. Toensing, "A Li­ purchase a microfilm copy and granted pub­ brarian Looks at Fur Trade Literature"; Ar­ lication rights as well. A second exciting thur Woodward, "Fur Trade Goods"; and acquisition will be announced in the spring Alan R. Woolworth, "Archaeological Exca­ of 1967 through a joint American-Canadian vations at Grand Portage: An Eighteenth release. In each case microfilm copies will Century Fur Trade Metropolis." Unedited he placed in Canadian depositories as well copies of all these essays are available from as in the society's collection. the Minnesota Historical Society for the cost Co-operation between the two countries of duplication. has been increasing steadily in the area of Persons who attended the conference will fur trade history, where they share a com­ recall the postconference discussions on the mon heritage. Undoubtedly the greatest sin­ need for the establishment of a fur trade re­ gle factor contributing to this co-operation search center or clearinghouse for informa­ has been the joint Canadian-American un­ tion. A short time later, officials of the derwater archaeology project, begun by the Hudson's Bay Company indicated an inter­ Minnesota Historical Society in 1961 and ex­ est in contributing to the support of such a panded over the years until it now involves center. Other companies and foundations several provinces as well as the state of will be approached as soon as plans are Minnesota. more clearly drawn. Numerous inquiries have been received In the meantime, the Minnesota Historical about plans for another fur trade conference. Society decided not only to pursue this ob­ Tlie University of Manitoba has expressed jective but to increase its efforts to locate an interest in serving as host to such a gath­ new sources of information. The society is ering. There is a possibility that a second pleased to report that it has employed a field conference can be held in 1970 to coincide representative to search for unknown collec­ with the three-hundredth anniversary of the tions of fur trade materials in Canada — Hudson's Bay Company. Ed. THE ILLUSTRATIONS on the foUowing pages are from a variety of sources. Those featured in the essays on pages 188-191 and 192-197 were sup­ pfied by the authors, and the accompanying maps were drafted by Mary D. Nagle. The painting on page 159 is by William de la M. Gary and is owned by the American Museum of Natural History, New York; the sketches on page 161 are from the New­ berry Library, Chicago; and the engraving on page 165 is from G. M. Grant, Ocean to Ocean: Sandford Fleming's Expedition through Canada in 1872 (Lon­ don, 1873). A copy of the map reproduced on page 173 was furnished by Mr. Davies. The drawing on page 177 is in Harper's New Monthly Magazine of June, 1879, and the one on page 185 is from Robert M. Ballantyne, Hudson Bay (London and New York, 1876). The painting on page 199 is used by courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution. The pen and ink sketches of animals and the beaver bats on page 187 are by Rhoda R. Gilman. ^X^ 150 MINNESOTA History Mr. Morgan, who has written widely about the fur trade, is on the staff of the Bancroft Library in the University of California at Berkeley. This paper was published in the Spring, 1966, issue of the American West and is reprinted with permission as it appeared there. The FUR TRADE and Its HISTORIANS DALE L. MORGAN FEW WOULD EVER have heard of Fred­ enced nearly everything written about the erick Jackson Turner, probably, had he history of the West in the first half of the stayed with his early preoccupation with the nineteenth century — that it has, indeed, fur trade (or "Indian trade") of the Wiscon­ been more largely influential than the only sin area. Turner enunciated in 1893 a hy­ general work Turner himself ever published pothesis about the importance of tbe frontier (his Rise of the New West, 1819-1829, in American history, and his elaboration of which leaned on Chittenden's history and that hypothesis by degrees made him fa­ described it as "excellent"). From the year mous, though the hypothesis has had its ups of its publication, 1902, The American Fur and downs in scholarly opinion. Some years Trade of the Far West has not only been later, a Texan maverick, Walter Prescott referred to constantly by writers of every Webb, was acclaimed a powerful and origi­ description, but has also powerfully shaped nal thinker for outlining a novel way of their ideas. As recently as 1947 Bernard looking at the Great Plains, still later for DeVoto observed that Chittenden's study writing up a vision of American history as a "remains the most valuable single book four-hundred-year boom on which time has about the trade and the only general history run out. Turner's disciples are still trying to of it," though as DeVoto further remarked, nail down his frontier hypothesis witb spe­ "a staggering amount of new material bas cifics; and Webb's more grandiose concep­ come to light and a great deal of scholarly tion, it seems likely, we shall be unable to work has been done." (Since DeVoto made test very effectively until we have waited a this comment, Paul C. Phillips' The Fur few hundred years to gain a useful perspec­ Trade has appeared posthumously. It has a tive. The harder it is to pin something down, wider field of view than Chittenden's and is the more compelling the idea; it would seem more continuously factful, but it is a basi­ that thinking must achieve a certain level of cally less thoughtful work.) The idea may abstraction to command general admiration.
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