No Ordinary Journey: John Rae, Arctic Explorer 1813-1893

<p>John Rae's solitary childhood in the rugged hills of Orkney, Scotland, can be seen as preparation for the challenge he later faced in the Canadian Arctic. As a member of the Hudson's Bay Company, with a posting as surgeon and clerk to George Simpson, he travelled extensively in the Arctic, often alone. Taught to survive in extreme conditions by the Indians and the Inuit, he used this knowledge in exploring, surveying and mapping; collecting information on zoology, ethnography, and geology; and making detailed observations of the ethnography of the Inuit. In his later years he wrote widely on the natural history, geography, and anthropology of the North. Rae was a committed, independent, and idiosyncratic man and a controversial figure in his own period. There has, until now, been little recognition of the importance and diversity of his achievements.</p>

History

Bunyan, Ian

CALDER, JENNI

Americas

McGill-Queen's University Press

John Rae's solitary childhood in the rugged hills of Orkney, Scotland, can be seen as preparation for the challenge he later faced in the Canadian Arctic. As a member of the Hudson's Bay Company, with a posting as surgeon and clerk to George Simpson, he travelled extensively in the Arctic, often alone. Taught to survive in extreme conditions by the Indians and the Inuit, he used this knowledge in exploring, surveying and mapping; collecting information on zoology, ethnography, and geology; and making detailed observations of the ethnography of the Inuit. In his later years he wrote widely on the natural history, geography, and anthropology of the North. Rae was a committed, independent, and idiosyncratic man and a controversial figure in his own period. There has, until now, been little recognition of the importance and diversity of his achievements.

Dr John Rae, Orcadian, explorer, collector and ethnographer, began his Arctic explorations in the 1840s and was instrumental in uncovering the first clues as to the fate of the Franklin expedition, which went missing in 1847. He travelled over 13,000 miles of the Canadian Arctic, adopting the survival techniques of the Indians and Inuit. He undertook surveys and studies, and collected zoological, botanical and ethnographic material. Unusually for the time, he recognized and learned from the skills and understanding of peoples he encountered, which made him a controversial figure in Victorian eyes. This book makes use of Rae's unpublished journal, which provides detail and an insight into the realities of Arctic travel in the nineteenth century. Illustrations are drawn from a wide range of Scottish and Canadian sources.

No ordinary journey: John Rae, Arctic explorer, 1813-1893

Idiens, Dale

Wilson, Bryce

National Museums Of Scotland

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