John Jennings (1)

This is a striking book with beautiful photographs of the 1:5 scale model canoes built by Tappan Adney between the years 1887 and 1950. These are mostly birch bark canoes and they are now housed at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News, Virginia. There is not much text in the book but what there is highlights characteristic regional features of each of the models. The textual chapters concisely tell the fascinating story of the birch bark canoe and the equally fascinating story of Tappan Adney. Though he lived most of his life indebted and in poverty, his lifelong interest in Maliseet culture and his dogged quest to preserve birch bark canoe craft by minutely reproducing its many regional and temporal variants, resulted in a lifetime achievement that is humbling.… (mehr)