What do an ill-fated expedition to locate the north-west passage and a lengthy dispute with the Board of Trade regarding lost earnings have to do with one of the most popular texts of the late eighteenth century? For July’s ‘Book of the Month’ we mark Independence Day in the United States by considering Jonathan Carver’s Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768. An incredibly popular text on both sides of the Atlantic, Carver’s Travels forms an account of his journey from Boston through to the Minnesota River, including his time spent residing among the Dakota Sioux Amerindians. Rather than considering the content of the text itself (although, for those who are keen to read it, a digitised version of the original can be found here), this blog explores the fascinating story behind Carver’s Travels, before considering its reception amongst the members of our eighteenth-century libraries.
Born and raised in New England, Jonathan Carver (13 April 1710–31 January 1780) was from a moderately wealthy family: his father, David Carver, was a local government official, while his mother, Hannah Dyer, was a member of a prominent Connecticut family. Although the specifics of Jonathan’s earliest years remain unclear, his biographers agree that Jonathan received some level of formal education.[1] During the 1740s, Carver lived with his family at the frontier settlement of Montague in Massachusetts, where he was a ‘selectman’ (a member of a board of officers elected to manage local concerns in a New England township) and possibly making his living as a shoemaker.[2]
Living on the New England frontier, Carver’s daily life was impacted by increasing political hostilities and the outbreak of the French and Indian War (the North American arena of the Seven Years’ War). Enrolling in the Massachusetts militia, Carver obtained the rank of Captain and upon the conclusion of the war he embarked upon a career as an explorer and surveyor. In this capacity, he became involved with Major Robert Rogers's ill-fated expedition to discover the elusive north-west passage (1766-1767) and to found the proposed new colony of Michilimackinac.[3] It was at this point that Carver began writing his Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America. The text is a record of his observations during his explorations through present-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, including his interactions with First Nations peoples.
Carver’s Travels may not necessarily have been originally written for publication, but arose from a dispute over payment: upon his return to Massachusetts, Carver found that he was not to be paid for his services, as Major Rogers had been arrested on suspicion of treason. Seeking recompense, Carver sailed to London in 1769 to put his case before the Board of Trade. During the lengthy wait for the Board’s decision, he revised his journals and sought their publication. With the help of Joseph Banks,[4] President of the Royal Society, Carver’s Travels were first published in London in 1778. At the time of its publication, Carver’s Travels was the most popular substantial account of any First Nations peoples originally written in English. By the end of the eighteenth century, it had been reprinted in sixteen editions across the Anglophone Atlantic, including Dublin (Ireland), Philadelphia, Portsmouth (New Hampshire), Boston and Edinburgh.[5] It was also translated into Dutch, German, and French.[6]
For the Libraries project, Carver’s Travels was incredibly popular amongst our eighteenth-century readers on both sides of the Atlantic. It was held in more than 20 libraries in North America – including at project partners the Union Library of Hatborough, the Library Company of Burlington, and the Library Company of Philadelphia[7] – as well as in all four corners of the British Isles, including Belfast[8] and Pembroke in Wales. From the project teams’ work in transcribing and uploading surviving circulation records, we can see how often Carver’s Travels was borrowed, and by whom. At the Union Library of Hatborough, for instance, the text was so popular that it was routinely ‘called for’ by members; these individuals were so keen to read Carver’s Travels, that they impatiently asked for the item to be recalled from the member who was currently in possession of it. On the other side of the Atlantic, at the Bristol Library Society, the book was borrowed regularly by members, whose occupations ranged from merchants, local politicians and surgeons to brewers and linen drapers. Carver’s Travels was also borrowed by at least one woman, the otherwise unidentified Mrs Mary Adams. While we may never uncover an individual’s reason for borrowing the text, it is tempting to speculate that some readers were eager to familiarise themselves with Carver’s report of the new North American terrain colonised by Britain following the Seven Years War, while others were curious about the cultural practices of the indigenous societies whom he described. As the Libraries project team continue their work in digitising circulation records, users of the project’s database will be able to explore the circulation and popularity of similar texts.
References
[1] John Parker, ‘Jonathan Carver (13 April 1710–31 January 1780)’, American National Biography Online (2000), https://doi-org.liverpool.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2000157 [accessed 12 June 2000]; Troy O. Bickham, ‘Jonathan Carver (1710–1780)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), https://doi-org.liverpool.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/4829 [accessed 12 June 2022].
[2] ‘Selectman’, Oxford English Dictionary Online, http://www.oed.com.liverpool.idm.oclc.org [accessed 15 June 2022].
[3] Keith R. Widder, ‘The 1767 Maps of Robert Rogers and Jonathan Carver: A Proposal for the Establishment of the Colony of Michilimackinac’, Michigan Historical Review, 30.2 (2004): 35-75.
[4] Simon Werrett, ‘Rethinking Joseph Banks’, Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science, 73.4 (20019): 425-29. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsnr.2018.0064
[5] British Library, English Short Title Catalogue, <http://estc.bl.uk/> [accessed 12 June 2022].
[6] Parker, ‘Jonathan Carver’; Bickham, ‘Jonathan Carver’.
[7] The Library Company of Philadelphia held three copies, while the New York Society held Carver’s New Universal Traveller.
[8] Belfast Society for Promoting Knowledge