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Reviews
HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF THE DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE
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by Alan Day
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| Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md., 2006. Maps, bibliography. 472 pages. $90.00 cloth. |
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| Alan Day's book manages to both exceed the scope of the traditional historical dictionary and fall short of it. Like the first and second volumes in Scarecrow Press' Historical Dictionaries of Discovery and Exploration series, the dictionary entries relating to the search for and exploration of the Northwest Passage are bolstered by a chronology, an extensive introduction, and a lengthy bibliography. This work to some extent updates Day's Search for the Northwest Passage: An Annotated Bibliography (1986), although in many respects that earlier work is much more substantial. |
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In his introduction, Day outlines in a readable and straightforward way the progress of what he sees as a "discrete historical and geographical endeavor" (p. xxxvi), starting with John Cabot's 1497 journey to the Labrador Coast that made Europeans aware of the great geographic barrier to their route to China, through (or around) which they would have to find a passage. The twenty-three-page introduction cannot fully describe the motivations of the explorers and investors who sustained the search for the Northwest Passage over the next four hundred years, but it does provide a good overview of first British and later North American endeavors to locate an eastern entrance to the passage. The Spanish and British attempts to find an entrance in the Pacific are briefly described in the introduction and dictionary entries, and a list of works on the subject is included in the bibliography. |
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The 117 pages of the bibliography are arranged in sections that are preceded by a table of contents and a bibliographic essay. The first sections list general reference resources (such as encyclopedias and bibliographies) that address the broader topic of Northwest Passage exploration. Subsequent sections list works that address particular time periods, such as the "British Mercantile Endeavor (1526–1624)" and the "Franklin Search and Rescue Expeditions (1846–1869)." The bibliography is more selective than Day's 1986 work but is extensive and up-to-date. |
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The weakest part of the work, ironically, is the section that includes the dictionary entries. The entries in the historical dictionary define or describe the people, places, and language associated with the explorations — the voyages and backgrounds of the explorers, geographic places and features, exploration societies and companies, and scientific organizations — but the style strays from the conventions of reference works. The entries are inconsistent in tone and are not always objective; many include historical interpretation and commentary. Since such commentary is unattributed, it appears to be the author's viewpoint — a viewpoint that is valid, but is more appropriate for inclusion in a historical analysis than a reference work. |
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The purpose of any dictionary is to provide some explanation of terms unfamiliar to readers whose interest is piqued, presumably, when they encounter a reference to something that is not given sufficient explanation. Day has chosen to include entries referencing events that are unlikely to be mentioned in Northwest Passage literature out of context or without accompanying explanation. The entries for "Food Poisoning" and "Lead Poisoning," for example, describe in some detail competing theories of what caused the death of crew members of Sir John Franklin's third arctic expedition (pp. 93–95, 165–6). The information provided in these lengthy entries seems more logically placed in the entry on the expedition since, from a researcher's point of view, it seems unlikely one would look for an explanation of the deaths in that expedition under such generic headings. |
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Likewise, it is difficult to imagine a researcher would find in any Northwest Passage text references to "Arctic Postman" or "The Franklin Mafia" that did not include some context or explanation that would preclude the need for a reference resource (pp. 8, 100). Because inclusion of these entries does not ensure that even minor references are included in the dictionary, the impression left is that the author intended for the entries to be clever or whimsical. Other entries that seem out of place are those that describe publications and sources, such as "Hudson's Bay Company Archives" or "Polar and Glaciological Abstracts" (pp. 142, 224). The text of these entries would more appropriately be placed in an annotated bibliography. |
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Despite these drawbacks, Day's scholarship seems sound and the text — particularly the chronology, introduction, and bibliography — would be a useful reference tool for the undergraduate scholar or anyone new to this field of research. |
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| JENNIFER L. DORNER
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| Portland State University, Oregon |
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