Exploring and mapping Alaska : the Russian America era, 1741-1867

545 Pages·2015·13.34 MB·English

by  Falk

Exploring and
Mapping Alaska
•
The Russian America Era, 1741–1867
Alexey Postnikov
and Marvin Falk
Translation by Lydia Black
University of Alaska Press
Fairbanks
© 2015 University of Alaska Press
All rights reserved
University of Alaska Press
P.O. Box 756240
Fairbanks, AK 99775-6240
ISBN 978-1-60223-251-8 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-60223-252-5 (electronic)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Postnikov, A. V. (Aleksei Vladimirovich)
[Russkaia Amerika v geograficheskikh opisaniiakh i na kartakh. English]
Exploring and mapping Alaska : the Russian America era, 1741-1867 / Marvin Falk &
Alexey Postnikov ; translated by Lydia Black.
pages cm. — (Rasmuson library historic translation)
ISBN 978-1-60223-251-8 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-60223-252-5 (electronic)
1. Discoveries in geography—Russian. 2. Discoveries in geography—
American. 3. Cartography—Alaska—History. 4. Russians—North
America—History. 5. North America—Discovery and exploration—
Russian. 6. Alaska—Discovery and exploration—American. I. Falk, Marvin W.,
1943-, editor. II. Title.
GA401.P6813 2015
526.09798’09033—dc23
Cover Design by Paula Elmes
Interior design by Mark Bergeron, Publishers’ Design and Production Services, Inc.
Cover illustrations: Blossom’s barge on Arctic coast, oil painting, UAF Rare Books.
This publication was printed on acid-free paper that meets the minimum requirements
for ANSI / NISO Z39.48–1992 (R2002) (Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials).
Contents
•
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
I The Russian Advance Toward the Pacific Ocean 1
II Are America and Asia Joined? 25
III Mapping the Distribution of Water and Land in the North
Pacific (1750–1800) 77
IV The Exploration and Cartography of Russian America
(1799–1867) 209
V The Sale of Alaska and the International Expedition to Effect
a Telegraph Link between North America and Europe
via Siberia 405
Conclusion: Russian Heritage and the Influence of
Geographic Explorations in Alaska 449
Bibliography 465
Index 493
iii
List of Figures
•
Figure 2 Chart of the Yakut Nobleman Lvov 13
Figure 3 Map by Ivan Lvov 14
Figure 4 Eastern portion of manuscript map 35
Figure 5 Cartes de Pays traverse par le Cap 36
Figure 6 Gvozdev’s Voyage 43
Figure 7 Delsile’s map 48
Figure 8 The Dutch discovery of country land 49
Figure 9 Manuscript map of Kayak Island 55
Figure 10 Bering expedition map 61
Figure 13 Shishkin’s map of Umnak and Unalaska 86
Figure 14 Map of Sindt’s voyage 91
Figure 15 Jakoff Shabanov’s manuscript map 96
Figure 16 N. I. Daurkin’s map of Northeast Asia and North America 99
Figure 18 Pallas, Map of Bering Strait 114
Figure 19 A facsimile reproduction of Juan Francisco 118
Figure 20 The monument over Clerke’s grave 128
Figure 21 A portion of a manuscript map 130
Figure 22 Mercator of the Aleutians 132
Figure 23 Kobelev’s voyage 1779 134
Figure 24 A copy of Cook Expedition manuscript 137
Figure 25 A. Vilbrek 139
iv
List of Figures v
Figure 26 Voyage of Navigator Zaikov 140
Figure 27 The Alaska Peninsula from Black 142
Figure 29 The Izmailov and Bocharov map 146
Figure 30 Map of the North Pacific 150
Figure 31 The Billings Expedition at Three Saints Bay 162
Figure 32 The Billings Expedition at Unalaska 167
Figure 33 The Chuckchee Peninsula 168
Figure 34 Billing Expedition chart 170
Figure 35 Shelikhov’s voyage of 1783 179
Figure 36 Portion of Vancouver’s chart showing Cook Inlet 188
Figure 37 Portion of Vancouver’s chart showing Prince William
Sound 190
Figure 38 Portrait of Alexander Baranov 210
Figure 39 Portrait of Count Rumiantsev from Choris 234
Figure 40 Portrait of Captain Lisyansky 235
Figure 41 Saint Paul (now city of Kodiak) 238
Figure 42 The new settlement of New Archangel 239
Figure 43 Lisyanski’s map of Sitka 241
Figure 44 The settlement on Unalaska 248
Figure 45 Members of the Kotzebue Expedition 250
Figure 46 Bering Strait with newly discovered Kotzebue Sound 251
Figure 47 Blossom’s barge on Arctic Coast 271
Figure 48 F. W. Beechey 274
Figure 49 Portrait of F. Litke 281
Figure 50 Sitka Harbor by Litke Expedition 282
Figure 51 One of Litke’s instruments to measure gravitational
variation 283
Figure 52 The Chief Manager’s residence 284
Figure 53 Log cabin in Sitka 284
Figure 54 Sitka church 285
vi List of Figures
Figure 55 Vegetation surrounding Sitka 285
Figure 56 Litke’s map of St. Mathew Island 286
Figure 57 Aleut Hunters 287
Figure 58 Portion of a map of Kodiak and Shelikhov Strait 301
Figure 59 Portion of a map of Kodiak Island and Shelikhov Strait 303
Figure 60 Wrangell’s map 323
Figure 61 A portion of Zagoskin’s map 350
Figure 62 The Russian observatory on Japanski Island 363
Figure 63 Portion of the summary map of the North Pacific 365
Figure 64 Plate VIII showing Southeast Alaska 366
Figure 65 Inset map on Plate XIV 368
Figure 67 Grewingk’s map of the Kenai Peninsula 372
Figure 69 The aurora over Nulato in Whymper 426
Figure 70 Fort Yukon from Whymper 429
Figure 71 Map of Alaska from Whymper 430
Figure 72 Map of Russian America or Alaska Territory 432
Figure 73 Mercator’s Chart of the Eastern Ocean 435
Figure 74 Sitka from the Eastern Harbor 439
Figure 75 Sitka from the Western Harbor 440
Figure 1 Carte générale de la Siberie et de la Grande Tartaria center
Figure 11 Delisle map center
Figure 12 Mullers Academy of Science map center
Figure 17 Jacob von Staehlin’s Academy of Sciences map center
Figure 28 Shelikov’s Voyage tracks center
Figure 66 Portion of Grewingk’s mineral map center
Figure 68 Chart of the indigenous dialects center
Figure 76 North Western America center
Preface
•
This book is an account of the discovery and mapping of Alaska before its trans-
fer to the United States in 1867. It is a history full of competing commercial
interests, state secrets, and lost manuscripts leaving a record full of riddles. The exist-
ing records are widely scattered, not only in Russia but also across Western Europe
and North America. Alexey Postnikov labored diligently to find, thoroughly docu-
ment, and interpret these rich resources.
Professor Postnikov worked with Richard A. Pierce, a leading scholar of Russian
America and a publisher of translations. Together, the two professors planned to
publish this work simultaneously in both a Russian and a translated English edi-
tion. They began their collaboration in 1997, but along the way Pierce decided to
publish his English translation following the 2000 publication of the Russian. He
turned to our UAF colleague, Professor Lydia T. Black, for help. With the passing
of Dr. Pierce in 2004, the full project fell to Dr. Black. She was ideally suited to
complete the project with her skills as a leading anthropologist, translator of her
native Russian, and historian.
The translation of Postnikov’s text was one of Lydia’s last projects before she,
too, passed away in 2007. Realizing that she would be unable to complete the proj-
ect, she asked me to “English” the text and to see the project through to publica-
tion. One of Dr. Black’s challenges was the inaccessibility of Richard Pierce’s papers.
Among them were almost all of Postnikov’s illustrations.
Since Professor Postnikov had sent his original illustrations to Dr. Pierce and
was not in a position to re-gather them, I have substituted maps and illustrations
from the collections of the Rasmuson Library as appropriate. I have updated por-
tions of the text to reflect scholarship published since Dr. Postnikov completed his
manuscript for publication.
For those with an interest in continuing the search for historical maps, a
wealth of material has become available online. There is not yet a common search
engine across collections that can find historical maps efficiently, but how maps are
described and displayed is constantly improving. The most innovative is the David
Rumsey site (davidrumsey.com), which combines historical maps with Google
vii
viii Preface
Earth and other modern mapping systems. At this time there are over 48,000 digi-
tized maps on the site, but relatively few are of Alaska.
The most comprehensive site for Russian America is the Library of Congress’s
“Meeting of Frontiers” (memory.loc.gov/intldl/mtfhtml/mfdigcol/mfdigcol.html),
which has contributions from major Russian repositories as well as the Library of
Congress and the Rasmuson Library. However, their search and display technolo-
gies are out of date and somewhat difficult to use.
Map collections around the world are rapidly being digitized and can be
searched, sometimes institution by institution and sometimes as consortia. An
example of such a consortium is the Alaska Digital Archives (vilda.alaska.edu),
which includes a small selection of maps from collections around the state of Alaska.
The best place to track developments in online map access is an international his-
torical mapping site (maphistory.info).