Exploration of Alaska, 1865-1900

by Morgan B. Sherwood

This narrative, covering thirty-five years of intense scientific and geographic exploration, is considered a milestone of Alaska historical literature. It details accounts of the men and institutions involved in Alaska's development and subsequent recognition.

These include a lively cast of characters such as William H. Dall, the scholar adventurer who became America's leading authority on Alaska; Ivan Petroff, the con man, plagiarist and forger who "authored" two of the three most influential books on Alaska in the nineteenth century; and Henry T. Allen, an ambitious young army officer whose 1,500-mile journey in 1885 on the Copper, Tanana, and Koyukuk Rivers was called the greatest overland expedition on the continent since that of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark eighty years earlier.

With his readable prose, Sherwood provides a chronology of the state's scientific and biographical history and captures the natural beauty that lured explorers to this distant land.

207 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1992

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in the history of exploration of the interior and northwest regions of Alaska, this book should be included in your to-read list. It its a thorough organized account of the geographic and natural history exploration of unknown areas of Alaska after the Civil War until the turn of the century. It amazes me how much was accomplished in these 35 years. Sherwoods account is often dry, but just when you think you've had enough history for the day he spices it up with insights into the characters of the explorers or with an interesting aside on the brutal nature of the hardships they faced. I give this a 4 because it is a lot of compressed information, but as a scholarly work I have no doubt it should be a 5.