Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America

Description

Everything you need to know about the nearly lost art of bark and skin craft. The bark canoes of the North American Indians, particularly those made of birch bark, were among the most highly developed manually propelled primitive watercraft of their time. They could be used to carry heavy loads in shallow streams but were light enough to be hauled long distances over land. Built with Stone Age tools from available materials, their design, size, and appearance were varied to suit the many requirements of their users. Upon arrival in North America, European settlers began using the native-made craft for traveling through the wilderness. Even today, canoes are based on these ancient designs. Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America combines historical background with easy-to-understand, practical instructions. Author Edwin Tappan Adney, born in 1868, devoted his life to studying canoes and was practically the sole scholar in his field. His papers and research have been assembled by a curator at the Smithsonian Institution and illustrated with black-and-white line drawings, diagrams, and photos. Included here are measurements, detailed drawings, construction methods, and models. The book covers canoes from Newfoundland to the Pacific Ocean, as well as umiaks and kayaks from the Arctic. Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America is not only a must-have for boatbuilding hobbyists, but also for those with a fascination for the history behind them. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Edwin Tappan Adney was an artist, a writer, a photographer and the man credited with saving the art of birch bark canoe construction. He built more than one hundred models of different types, which are now housed at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. He is the author of The Klondike Stampede, a book, illustrated with his own photographs, about his experiences in the Yukon during the Gold Rush. He lived in Athens, Ohio. Howard Chapelle was a curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He authored many books and articles on maritime history and marine architecture. John McPhee is an American writer, and considered by many as one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction for his collection Annals of the Former World, he is the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, where he currently resides.