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Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America Kindle Edition

by Edwin Tappan Adney (Author), Howard I. Chapelle (Author), John McPhee (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 80 ratings
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The bark canoes of the North American Indians, particularly those of birchbark, were among the most highly developed manually propelled primitive watercraft. Built with Stone Age tools from available materials, their design, size, and appearance were varied to suit the many requirements of their users. Even today, canoes are based on these ancient designs, and this fascinating guide combines historical background with instructions for constructing one. Author Edwin Tappan Adney, born in 1868, devoted his life to studying canoes and was practically the sole scholar in his field. His papers and research have been assembled by a curator at the Smithsonian Institution.
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  1. Print length
    475 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Skyhorse
  5. Publication date
    October 17, 2007
  6. File size
    47028 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A fascinating and richly detailed look at a nearly lost handicraft.”—Fine Woodworking

About the Author

Edwin Tappan Adney was an artist, a writer, a photographer and the man credited with saving the art of birch bark canoe construction. He built more than one hundred models of different types, which are now housed at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. He is the author of The Klondike Stampede, a book, illustrated with his own photographs, about his experiences in the Yukon during the Gold Rush. He lived in Athens, Ohio.

Howard Chapelle was a curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. He authored many books and articles on maritime history and marine architecture.

John McPhee is an American writer, and considered by many as one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction for his collection Annals of the Former World, he is the Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University, where he currently resides.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01DRXBD1Q
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Skyhorse; Reprint edition (October 17, 2007)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 17, 2007
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 47028 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 475 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 80 ratings

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
80 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jaroca2
5.0 out of 5 stars Human achievement at its best
Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2019
Verified Purchase
This is an amazing history of the most important tools, if you will, of transportation that allowed the settling of the continent. Where would we be without the accessibility they provided us?

I bought a second copy as a gift for a friend

Both copies were fabulous bargains and in wonderful condition that was better than described

Highly recommended
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J. Breiby
5.0 out of 5 stars Bark Canoes and Skin Boats of North America
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2010
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Bark Canoes and Skin Boats, by Edwin Tappan Adney and Howard Chapelle is THE classic on the subject. I first got a hardbound copy through the US Govt Printing Office back in 1974. The recent copy purchased through Amazon was a gift for a friend. Adney became interested in bark canoes back in the late 19th century when folks were still using them on a daily basis, so he was able to document them and subsequently make scale models of many of them. Chapelle was the curator of transportation at the Smithsonian Museum, and undoubtedly the best authority on traditional American boat types at the time of the book's publishing for both Euro-American and Native American development. If it weren't for him there is no doubt that knowledge of most of these craft would have died out. The skin boats contained in the volume have been recorded and measured from specimens in the Smithsonian and other museums, as well as from boats measured in the field. In addition to measured plans, there is excellent accompanying text on how the various boats were built and used. If you only wanted to get one book on this subject, this should be the one.
5 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Well put together
Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2019
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The information in the book is wonderful. Only drawback is many of the images are too dark to see clearly, especially if you are hoping to use as source material for your own build
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PAmtnman
5.0 out of 5 stars How many times have I read through this book, ...
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2016
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How many times have I read through this book, more flipping from subject to subject than reading in a linear form forward, I cannot tell you. If you are a student of history, ethnography, boats, the settling of the Americas, Native culture and lifestyle, wilderness living, hunting, fishing, trapping, whaling, woodcraft, sustainable living, warfare, or just plain old craftsmanship, this book is for you. It should tell us something that John McPhee wrote a book about this book's author, Adney, who was a world-class curmudgeon. The next time someone tells you to fit in, to go along and get along, to stop thinking weird thoughts, think about Adney. He did not "fit in." He did things his way, for reasons that made sense only to him and a couple other people at the time, and today we have this incredible book that is a reflection of Adney's personal force. Yes, it is a book about home made boats, but it is also about the person who sought to capture that way of thinking before it sank beneath the waves of shallow modernism and mass production, Adney. Might Adney be a model to us all. UPDATE: April, 2021 I am reading other reviews that say this book has no drawings or pictures, and I don't know what happened, but my 1983 Smithsonian edition is loaded with drawings and photos, even detailed drawings of how to sew walrus hide onto an umiak frame (page 186). My edition lists 224 illustrations in the book, most of them very detailed drawings of each type of boat. If your version does not have the detailed drawings, then you were sold the wrong book. Something went wrong.
4 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Book had no diagrams or pictures.
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2023
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Book had no diagrams or pictures only text. Though text references figures and diagrams on numetous pages. Waste of money
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Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of knowledge, poor print quality
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2017
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The book is incredible rich i wording details. The authors have been very skilled and knowledged. Unfortunately the figures suffer from poor printing quality. Photographs, all of which given in black and white, are of poor quality, coarse-grained, low contrast, and several of them are due to this of almost no value. Even some of the many detailed technical drawings suffer from low printing quality, so details like words or measurements cannot be seen.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Source material
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2021
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The prime source for the history and construction of bark canoes. Extensively illustrated with historical photographs.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Stoller Beat
2.0 out of 5 stars Ohne Zeichnungen!
Reviewed in Germany on April 25, 2024
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Leider eine etwas lieblos hergestellte Kopie des Originals rein mit Text und ohne die doch sehr wichtigen Zeichnungen!
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cascorro
1.0 out of 5 stars Sin ilustraciones
Reviewed in Spain on December 5, 2022
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Este libro vive de las ilustraciones, es que son dibujos de diferentes canoas. El ejemplar que vende amazon no tiene ningún dibujo, solo los textos que explican los dibujos (inexistentes).
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sadie 1
5.0 out of 5 stars fast
Reviewed in Canada on September 15, 2019
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this was a gift, he was really happy with this book
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Dr Ashley Mills
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinatingly detailed and comprehensive review of north american canoes
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2018
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This book provides detailed descriptions of birch bark building techniques as well as kayak construction. A large number of Native American tribes building styles are surveyed in this book, with architectural line drawings and detailed descriptions of any variability in construction technique.

If you want to know how birch bark canoes are constructed, this is the book for you. First you'll get a detailed overview with images and then you'll go through a litany of real examples from each tribe. It is fascinating to see the individual styles and variations and to understand more and more in context the little differences.

Woods, pack, fast river, and sea canoes are all described.
One person found this helpful
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federico
5.0 out of 5 stars per appassionati
Reviewed in Italy on November 30, 2014
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libro interessante e molto didattico. necessaria conoscenza dell'inglese ovviamente. per un non appassionato di costruzione di canoe e pagaie potrebbe risultare pesante. sulle pagaie non c'è molto in confronto alle canoe, ma solo una minima descrizione di alcuni modelli (che personalmente trovo comunque utile)
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