To the Charlottes: George Dawson's 1878 Survey of the Queen Charlotte Islands

Barry M. Gough is a history professor at Wilfrid Laurier University and
author of The Northwest Coast: British Navigation, Trade, and
Discoveries to 1812.

This book is a welcome addition to studies of the Queen Charlotte
Islands, and to British Columbia and Canadian scholarship as a whole,
both as a travel account and as a scientific account of the Charlottes
and its peoples, the Haida.

Dawson ranks as perhaps Canada’s greatest scientist of the 19th
century. Although facing considerable physical difficulties and
challenges, he was a prolific and courageous examiner of virtually
everything scientific. He was also a superb photographer, and many of
his “snaps” of villages, poles, and beaches of that idyllic time are
reproduced here, enhancing the excellent introduction, textual notes,
and editorial apparatus that make up this important contribution to
Canadian letters.