Haida-Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands) were still relatively untouched by European exploration when, in the summer of 1878, a young geologist name George Dawson arrived there on behalf of the Geological Survey of Canada. Separated from the mainland by many kilometres of water, the islands had retained a distinct ecological and cultural envionment that reflected millennia of isolation. They were, at the time that Dawson visited them, home to many rare species of plants and animals as well as to the unique culture of the Haida people.

One of the most remarkable scientists and explorers of his time, Dawson drew maps, collected fossil, plant and insect specimens, and investigated the ethnology of the Native people. His interest in Native culture is readily apparent in his personal reports and private journals, and he collected artifacts and took photographs which are well known for their early depictions of Haida villages and architecture. Yet what is most amazing is that he accomplished all this despite being physically challenged by the debilitating effects of a childhood illness.

This edition of Dawson's 1878 exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands includes a reprint of Dawson's report, On the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands, as well as numerous photographs taken by Dawson during his explorations. The text of the 1878 journal is meticulously annotated by editors Cole and Lockner, who also provide an informative introduction which includes biographical, scientific, and ethnological details.

Douglas Cole (1938-1997) was professor of history at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and a leading scholar on the history and culture of the Native peoples of the northwest Pacific coast. He was known for his writings on the history of art, literature, and intellectual thought in early British Columbia society, and he also wrote seminal studies about the impact of European values and institutions on the region's Native cultures. His ground-breaking books, Captured Heritage: The Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts (1985) and An Iron Hand Upon the People: The Law Against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast (1990; coauthored with Ira Chaikin) remain exemplary works for their painstaking research, provocative insights, and clarity of exposition.

Douglas Cole's profile page

Bradley Lockner is an historical editor and professional librarian with a special interest in British Columbia history. He has collaborated on two other volumes on George Dawson, and is currently working on another volume of Dawson's later journals. He has also been involved in several other historical editing projects, including the journal of the fur trader Alexander Walker, and the letters of Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, Indian Land commissioner in B.C. during the 1870s.

Bradley Lockner's profile page

Remarkable photographs of villages, poles, and canoes allow us to revert to 1878, if only to imagine what life was like in that time and place. Dawson's journal is meticulously edited and contains useful signposts for future scholars

Canadian Historical Review

It is a pleasure indeed to welcome this splendidly edited volume on George Dawson's 1878 survey of the Queen Charlotte Islands. Professors Cole and Lockner's short but highly informative introduction is complemented by almost forty pages of notes--bibliographical, biographical, and historical.  Students, scholars, and the general public are in their debt for these fine contributions to the history of British Columbia.

The American Review of Canadian Studies