Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 35/Number 4 Reviews


 * ../Review: The Heart of the Skyloo/
 * ../Review: A Day with the Cow Column in 1843/

IN THE American Historical Review, October, 1934, Frederick Merk makes another contribution to the Oregon boundary question, with an article entitled "British Government Propaganda and the Oregon Treaty." By reference to diplomatic correspondence Mr. Merk is able to show that the people of England were more belligerent in their attitude towards America than was the government, and that by skillful propaganda on the part of Lord Aberdeen the British public was prepared for a treaty of concession.

THE MISSISSIPPI Valley Historical Association announces publication of a topical guide to the Proceedings, volumes I-XI, and to the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, volumes I-XIX. The material was compiled by Charles H. Norby and Walker D. Wyman, under the supervision of Louis Pelzer, of the State University of Iowa. The guide is in four parts, covering the history of the west, national history, the historical profession and affairs of the association.

A UNION list of newspapers in American libraries is being compiled under the auspices of the Bibliographical Society of America, and will be published by grant of the Rockefeller Foundation. It is the purpose of the list to give location and extent of files of papers. Miss E. Ruth Rockwood of the Portland Library Association has collected and edited the data for the Oregon libraries.

THE GRABHORN Press, San Francisco, announces publication of a third series of Rare Americana, which will include The Duke of Sacramento, a play originally printed in San Francisco in 1856; Phoenixiana and The Squibob Papers, by George A. Derby; Wah-To-Yah and the Taos Trail, by Lewis H. Garrard; Captivity of the Oatman Girls, by R. B. Stratton; and Mark Twain's Letters from the Hawaiian Islands, never before printed in book form.

THE Beaver, September, 1934, has a number of articles of interest to readers in the Pacific northwest. Clifford P. Wilson's "The Emperor at Lachine," is the second of a series of three articles on Sir George Simpson, A note an the authorship of Simpson's Overland Journey Round the World, 1841-42, reveals that it was compiled by Adam Thom, from a journal kept by Edward M. Hopkins, Simpson's secretary, until March, 1842, and by Simpson himself, during the remainder of the journey; "The Champlain Society," by W. S. Wallace is an account of the founding of that society in Toronto, in 1905, and its aims and accomplishments in publishing rare and inaccessible material relating to the history of Canada. One of the most important, and at the same time the most popular of its publications, is David Thompson's Narrative, edited by Mr. J. B. Tyrrell. "For Crown and Fur Trade," by Muriel R. Cree, is an outline of the career of Sir James Douglas; the rebuilding of Fort Nisqually in Point Defiance Park, Tacoma, Washington, is described in "Fort Nisqually Lives Again," by Alfred L. Gehri.

THE Dictionary of National Biography, volume XIV, contains the fol lowing biographies: Edward 0. C. Ord, by C. C. Benson; John Ordway, by Louise P. Kellogg; Joel Palmer, by Katherine E. Crane; Samuel Parker, by Joseph Schafer; Sylvester Pennoyer, by R. C. Clark; Charles Vancouver Piper, by Lee Garby; Henry L. Pittock, by Leslie M. Scott.

THE Washington Historical Quarterly, October, 1934, has the following articles: "Pioneer Private Bankers in Washington," by N. R. Knight; "Records of Baptist Home Missionary Activity in Oregon Territory to 1860," by J. Orin Oliphant; "Problem of the Stone Lasts," by J. Neilson Barry; "Mormon Colonization Scheme for Vancouver Is land," by J. B. Munro; "Dr. George V. Calhoun," by Christine A. Neergaard; "The Reverend Father Blanchet, 1818-1906," by L. M. Dim mitt. The documents in this issue relate to Chief Kitsap.

A NEW theory on Magellan's route in the Pacific is advanced by George E. Nunn, in the Geographical Review, October, 1934. According to this author, Magellan sailed up the coast of South America to 200 south latitude, thence northwesterly to the Clarion Islands in 20? north latitude, and thence across the Pacific to the Philippine Is lands. In the same Review is "An Early Account of Bering's Voyages," by Leonard Stejneger, first official account of Bering's American voyage, 1742, translated from the Danish of Peder von Haven, origin ally published in 1747.

Chronicles of Oklahoma, September, 1934, prints a sketch of the Nez Perces Indians, criticizing the attitude of the government towards them, written in 1880 by James Reuben, a nephew of Chief Joseph, to be placed in the cornerstone of the Nez Perces and Ponca Indian school near Ponca City, Oklahoma. The documents were removed from the cornerstone when the building was torn down and given to the Oklahoma Historical Society.

"GENESIS OF the Pacific Mail Steamship Company," by John Haskell Kemble, in the California Historical Society Quarterly, September, 1934, gives information relating to the establishment of mail service to Oregon.

LETTERS AND notes from or about Bent's Fort, copied from the Saint Louis Reveille, 1844-45, are printed in the Colorado Magazine, November, 1934.

THE CONCLUSION of the "Journal of Francois Antoine Larocque, 1805," translated and edited by Ruth Hazlitt, appears in Frontier and Midland, Autumn number, 1934. The first two installments were printed in March and May, 1934. THE Commonwealth Review, July, 1934, contains "Intra-state Boundaries in Oregon," by Stephen B. Jones, which shows what has been done in county consolidation in Oregon. In the same issue, Burton E. Palmer surveys the work of the civil works administration in Oregon.

AN ADDRESS of Theodore C. Blegen on "Some Aspects of Historical Work under the New Deal," in the Mississippi Valley Historical Re view, September, 1934, gives an interesting survey of projects inaugurated by historical societies with federal funds, and what is being accomplished in listing state and county archives.