Everything Old Is New Again
Review published in MERCATOR'S WORLD, July/August, 1999, pp.62-63 |
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After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, peace found Britain with
a surplus of Royal Navy officers and ships.Some were diverted to the quest
for the Northwest Passage, and the Canadian Arctic soon became
sprinkled with familiar English place-names (Southampton, Somerset,
and Devon Islands) and personalities (Prince Regent Inlet, Victoria,
and Melville Island). Explorers often kept detailed logs, which
were later published as books as justification for the voyages.
Many of these chronicles follow a similar pattern: We sailed into
the ice, were trapped for a year (or more), and, finally breaking
free, sailed for home. London printers eagerly published the accounts,
because the public was fascinated by the bleak and unforgiving Arctic.
The disappearance of Sir John Franklin and his crew in 1845 sparked even
more interest, though by then it was fairly evident that the
Northwest Passage, even if it could be navigated, would never
be a commercial success.
CD-Academia Book Company of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, has embarked
on a program to electronically publish significant
accounts of exploration in the far north. Three of the first
four volumes released in its Arctic Discovery Series chronicle overland
explorations by naval officers. Three rivers MacKenzie, Coppermine,
and Back run northward through Canada into the Arctic Ocean.
The Admiralty hoped that following them to the Arctic Ocean and exploring
along their shores would yield valuable information and perhaps
even unlock the secrets of navigating the Northwest Passage. The fourth
volume in the series covers the ship-based exploration of Hudson
Strait aboard the H.M.S. Terror in 1836-1837.
Tales of these voyages offer exciting reading. Dr. Richardson, second
in command on both of Franklin’s expeditions, wrote a particularly
chilling account of a dreadfully difficult trek back to civilization
from the mouth of the Coppermine River in 1820. He discovered that
a member of his small party had murdered at least one other. Fearing
for his own life and that of his remaining companions, he
weighed alternatives and "determined, however, as I was thoroughly convinced
of the necessity of such a dreadful act, to take the responsibility
upon myself; and immediately upon Michel’s coming up, I put
an end to his life by shooting him through the head with a pistol."
Men placed in terrible circumstances sometimes resorted to drastic
measures.
John Franklin authored two of the books in the Arctic Discovery
Series: Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1819,20,21,
arid 22 (1823) and Narrative of a Second Expedition
to the Shores of the Polar Sea in the Years 1825, 1826 and 1827 (1828).
Captain George Back, who accompanied Franklin on his two earlier journeys,
authored the other two volumes in the series: Narrative of the
Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River,
and Along the Shores of the Arctic Ocean in the Years 1833, 1834,
and 1835 (1836) and Narrative of an Expedition in H.M.S. Terror,
Undertaken with a View of Geographical Discovery on the Arctic Shores,
in the Year 1836-7 (1838). Today, the Great Fish River is known
as the Back River.
Each volume comes on a single CD- ROM in Adobe Acrobat format,
with the viewing program included. Each contains numerous engraved
illustrations and maps. All are made from the first editions, published
in London by John Murray.
The CD-ROM series provides access to these somewhat hard-to-come-by
volumes, which otherwise usually can be viewed only in rare-book
collections. Only Franklin’s second journey is available in reprint,
at prices ranging from $40 to $150. Though original editions
of Franklin and Back can sometimes be found, prices range from $2,000
to $5,000. The CD-ROMs are each priced at $99.50 Canadian, equivalent
to about $65 U.S.
The price is reasonable, but why would anyone want to read an entire
book on a computer screen? Again, consider the alternative. The
originals rarely leave rare-book rooms and are read in cradles,
designed to protect the bindings. The pages are often fragile. A
book printed 160 years ago is sometimes hard to read because
of text bleeding or transfer. Engravings cannot be viewed easily.
Maps bound in books are even more difficult to access. The volume
on Franklin’s second voyage contains a large map labeled Discoveries
of the Expedition Under the Command of Captain Franklin, R.N. Near
the Mouth of the Mackenzie River and on the Sea Coast East & West,
A.D. 1825-26, which is nearly as long as its title (fifty inches
wide by twenty-seven inches high). Eight vertical folds lead to
two horizontal folds. It is printed on familiar onionskin paper, and
unfolding it is a daunting process; refolding it precisely is a two-person
job. Trying to lay the twenty-four section map flat for examination
is impossible. While this represents an extreme example, all maps folded
into 160-year-old books have a finite number of times they can
be unfolded without damage.
On the CD-ROM this large map is divided into ten segments to allow
for detailed viewing. Segments can be magnified up to eight times
and printed. At the largest scale, the entire map would blossom to
thirty-three feet wide if the printed sections were pasted together. Illustrations
can also be viewed in both high and low resolutions. Low resolution
is fine for full-screen viewing of the engravings. High resolution
allows details to be examined quite closely. High resolution
takes longer to load, but today’s printers can produce remarkably clear
copies.
CD-Academia Book Company has subtly reworked the old-fashioned font to make
it more legible. The text follows the original, page for page. Clicking
an image button calls up the original page for comparison.
The reworked text can be viewed in a number of font sizes and
is searchable.
An editorial board will select future books for publication based
on their importance, their con- tribution to general knowledge, and the
quality of the narrative and illustrations. In production are Sir John Ross’s
1829=1833 search for the Northwest Passage and G.E Lyon’s diary of
Parry’s voyage of discovery in 1819-1820. You can view samples
from the Arctic Discovery Series at CD- Academia Book Company’s Web
site: www.cd-books.com.
A recent Multimedia reviewed a similar product on CD-ROM by the
Octavo Corporation, Galileo’s Sidereus Nuncius (November/December
1998). This fall Octavo plans to publish a Mercator atlas (Duisberg,
1595) from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress in
a two-CD-ROM package. Visit their Web site at www.octavo.com for
particulars.
Librarians are beginning to recognize the advantages of digital publication.
Electronic documents eliminate the need for microfilm copies.
Brilliantly colored images can be examined in exquisite detail
on any computer terminal. Librarians will be able to safeguard priceless
collections while offering easy access to the interested public. Isn’t
that the best of both worlds?
Pages 62-63 MERCATOR S WORLD JULY/AUGUST 1999
Bill Warren
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