who became sufficiently interested to begin research 

 soon discovered that one man was devoting his life- 

 time to the study of these craft; that, in a field with 

 few documentary records and fewer artifacts, he had 

 had opportunities for detailed examination not open 

 to younger men; and that it was widely expected that 

 this man would eventually publish his findings. Hence 

 many, who might otherwise have carried on some re- 

 search and writing, turned to other subjects. Practi- 

 cally, then, the whole field had been left to Edwin 

 Tappan Adney. 



Born at Athens, Ohio, in 1868, Edwin Tappan 

 Adney was the son of Professor H. H. Adney, for- 

 merly a colonel in a volunteer regiment in the Civil 

 War but then on the faculty of Ohio University. His 

 mother was Ruth Shaw Adney. Edwin Tappan 

 Adney did not receive a college education, but he 

 managed to pursue three years' study of art with The 

 Art Students' League of New York. Apparently he 

 was interested in ornithology as well as in art, and 

 spent much time in New York museums, where he 

 met Ernest Thompson Seton and other naturalists. 

 Being unable to afford more study in art school, he 

 went on what was intended to be a short vacation, in 

 1887, to Woodstock, New Brunswick. There he be- 

 came interested in the woods-life of Peter Joe, a 

 Malecite Indian who lived in a temporary camp 

 nearby. This life so interested the 1 9-year-old Ohioan 

 that he turned toward the career of an artist-crafts- 

 man, recording outdoor scenes of the wilderness in 

 pictures. 



He undertook to learn the handicrafts of the Indian, 

 in order to picture him and his works correctly, and 

 lengthened his stay. In 1889, Adney and Peter Joe 

 each built a birch-bark canoe, Adney following and 

 recording every step the Indian made during con- 

 struction. The result Adney published, with sketches, 

 in Harper's Toung People magazine, July 29, 1 890, and, 

 in a later version, in Outing, May 1900. These, so far 

 as is known, are the earliest detailed descriptions of a 

 birch-bark canoe, with instructions for building one. 

 Daniel Beard considered them the best, and with 

 Adney's permission used the material in his Boating 

 Book for Boys. 



In 1897, Adney went to the Klondike as an artist 

 and special correspondent for Harper's Weekly and The 

 London Chronicle, to report on the gold-rush. He also 

 wrote a book on his experience, Klondike Stampede, 

 published in 1900. In 1899 he married Minnie 

 Bell Sharp, of Woodstock, but by 1900 Adney was 

 again in the Northwest, this time as special corre- 



spondent for Colliers magazine at Nome, Alaska, dur- 

 ing the gold-rush of that year. On his return to New 

 York, Adney engaged in illustrating outdoor scenes 

 and also lectured for the Society for the Prevention of 

 Cruelty to Animals. In 1908 he contributed to a 

 Harper's Outdoor Book for Boys. From New York he 

 removed to Montreal and became a citizen of Canada, 

 entering the Canadian Army as a Lieutenant of Engi- 

 neers in 1916. He was assigned to the construction of 

 training models and was on the staff of the Military 

 College, mustering out in 1919. He then made his 

 home in Montreal, engaging in painting and illus- 

 trating. From his early years in Woodstock he had 

 made a hobby of the study of birch-bark canoes, and 

 while in Montreal he became honorary consultant to 

 the Museum of McGill University, dealing with In- 

 dian lore. By 1925 Adney had assembled a great deal 

 of material and, to clarify his ideas, he began con- 

 struction of scale models of each type of canoe, carry- 

 ing on a very extensive correspondence with Indians, 

 factors and other employees (retired and active) of the 

 Hudson's Bay Company, and with government agents 

 on the Indian Reservations. He also made a number 

 of expeditions to interview Indians. Possessing lin- 

 guistic ability in Malecite, he was much interested in 

 all the Indian languages; this helped him in his 

 canoe studies. 



Owing to personal and financial misfortunes, he 

 and his wife (then blind) returned in the early 1930's 

 to her family homestead in Woodstock, where Mrs. 

 Adney died in 1937. Adney continued his work 

 under the greatest difficulties, including ill-health, 

 until his death, October 10, 1950. He did not 

 succeed in completing his research and had not 

 organized his collection of papers and notes for 

 publication when he died. 



Through the farsightedness of Frederick Hill, then 

 director of The Mariners' Museum, Newport News, 

 Virginia, Adney had, ten years before his death, 

 deposited in the, museum over a hundred of his models 

 and a portion of his papers. After his death his son 

 Glenn Adney cooperated in placing in The Mariners' 

 Museum the remaining papers dealing with bark 

 canoes, thus completing the "Adney Collection." 



Frederick Hill's appreciation of the scope and value 

 of the collection prompted him to seek my assistance 

 in organizing this material with a view to publication. 

 Though the Adney papers were apparently complete 

 and were found, upon careful examination, to 

 contain an immense amount of valuable informa- 

 tion, they were in a highly chaotic state. At the 



