Views of natives, landscapes, and ethnographic objects of the Northwest Coast of America, Pacific Islands, China, and South America. Half of the drawings are fully rendered watercolors, others are rough sketches with detailed notes on coloring, dates of anchorages, and occasionally events on board ship or shore. Ten watercolors are of Native Americans of the Northwest Coast, eight of them signed by Bacstrom and fully executed after his return. There are ten views of the Northwest Coast of America, including Nootka Sound and Queen Charlotte's Island, and Native American villages at Norfolk Sound and Fitzhugh Sound. There are two maps of Queen Charlotte's Island, six watercolors of canoes from the Northwest Coast and the Pacific Islands, and four drawings of Native American and Pacific island ethnographic objects and There are eighteen watercolor sketches and drawings of the coast of South America and the islands in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Staaten Island near Cape Horn. Other drawings include ten watercolors of Chinese men and women, a pencil drawing of a Chinese junk, and a watercolor of an American tea plant. The drawings are accompanied by a highly finished watercolor of the Greenland Whale Fishery not made during the voyage, and a manuscript catalog of "some accurate and characteristic original drawings" made on the voyage with prices; not all of the drawings listed correspond to drawings present in the collection
Description:
Bacstrom, a protégé of Sir Joseph Banks, served as surgeon on a private fur-trading ship which sailed around Cape Horn to the South Seas, Nootka Sound, the East Indies, and the Cape. Bacstrom left the ship at Nootka Sound and later served as surgeon on several ships, visiting China, India, the Cape, and the Americas., Accompanied by a container list., Manuscript captions., and View a digital version in the Beinecke Library's Digital Images Online database
Subject (Geographic):
Northwest, Pacific, Hawaii, China, Islands of the Pacific, Queen Charlotte Islands (B.C.), South America, and Greenland
Subject (Topic):
Indians of North America, Social life and customs, Clothing and dress, and Whaling
Manuscript ship's log, illustrated, mounted on pages from a bound printed copy of John Rowlett's Tables of Discount, or Interest, on Every Dollar[...]. The majority of the volume (pages 1A/1B-31) details a whaling voyage that began in New Bedford, Massachusetts, on 1845 July 18, destined for the Pacific Ocean. The author describes whale hunts, places visited (including Lima, Peru, and the Hawaiian islands), weather, animals, and life on the ship. Illustrated with eight colored-pencil drawings of ships, whale species, and geographic views. The last entry, dated 1847 November 5, marks the end of the voyage. Pages 32-38 contain six poems or shanties; the names and locations of the crew and officers are listed on pages 39-40.
Alternative Title:
Log of the whaling ship Acushnet : Captain William B. Rogers out New Bedford two years voyage 1845 and Rowlett interest tables
Description:
The Acushnet is the same whaling ship Herman Melville joined in 1840; his experiences helped shape Moby-Dick., Title from title page., Written on single sheets of paper adhered to a printed copy of Rowlett's Tables of Discount. Page 1A/1B is laid in. Resolvid W. Bowles' name and occupation (cooper) are written on the title page and he is listed among the ship's crew, but it is unclear whether the manuscript is in his hand or was copied by someone else at a later date., Endpapers include manuscript notes, figures, and J.D. Sturtevant's autograph. The number "4050" is written on a sticker adhered to the title page., and In English.
Subject (Geographic):
Hawaii and Lima (Peru)
Subject (Name):
Acushnet (Whaler)
Subject (Topic):
Whaling, Whaling ships, and Description and travel