Souvenirs of the Fur Trade: Northwest Coast Indian Art and Artifacts Collected by American Mariners
Cambridge: Peabody Museum,
Harvard University, 2000
“In her latest book, Souvenirs of the Fur Trade, Mary Malloy … draws upon both museum records and ethnohistorical documentation, skillfully describing, interpreting and synthesizing disparate databases…thoroughly examined and interpreted in new ways. The author’s extensive experience with maritime records and artifacts uniquely qualifies her for this research. … This volume is noteworthy for the unique and specialized understanding that Malloy has brought to the topic. Under her scrutiny, some of the earliest known Northwest Coast artifacts—many still extant and identifiable in current collections—take on new meaning in broader anthropological, cultural, and social contexts. This title certainly may be counted among those recent monographs that address the role of the artifact of cultural object in facilitating initial stages of contact and subsequent culture change… Those interested in Northwest Coast expressive culture and ethnohistory will find the volume both useful and interesting. The precise, non-judgmental description of obscure collections data, much of it made more widely accessible here for the first time, will be especially pertinent to scholars of the subject. The book’s well-organized and clearly presented interpretation of the objects as ‘documents of time and place’ will appeal to aficionados and professionals with other research specializations.”
– American Antiquity, Vol. 68, No. 3. July, 2003
Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh, Museum of Primitive Art and Culture
“Well researched, this valuable book demonstrates how far we have come since Erna Gunther’s pioneering, but often erroneous, efforts. … the introductory chapters can be read with profit by all with an interest in the period.”
– BC Studies, No. 135, Autumn 2002
“Towards an Art History of Northwest Coast First Nations: A Review Essay of Recent Literature”
Ira Jacknis, Hearst Museum of Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley
“This is the first comprehensive catalogue of Northwest Coast works that were collected during the greatest era of trade in sea otter pelts.”
– Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol 58, No. 1, Spring, 2002
Joyce M. Szabo, University of New Mexico