The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of Northern Eurasia

摘要

The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of Northern Eurasia, an encyclopedic treatment of a vast topic, introduces English-speaking readers to a heretofore-overlooked region of small-craft study. The book's authors, Harri Luukkannen and William W. Fitzhugh, were inspired by the classic 1964 tome, The Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America, by Edward Tappen Adney and Howard I. Chapelle, and they named their study of Northern Eurasian indigenous boats in honor of it. It was deliberately published by the Smithsonian Institution in the same size and format as the Adney and Chapelle book. Many WoodenBoat readers are well familiar with Adney and Chapelle. Starting in the late 1880s, Adney learned from Native American builders their materials and processes, and he drew and described these in detail. He also collected data to construct meticulous scale models and to make notes and drawings related to them. Adney died in 1950, but Chapelle, who was a Smithsonian curator at the time, turned Adney's notes into text and made measured drawings of his models; he also measured and drew craft in museum collections.