As part of my review of the geography collection at my library, I recently came across the book, Report on the Operations of the US Revenue Steamer Nunivak, 1899-1901 by Lt. John Cantwell. On page 175 of our edition, there are well intentioned but likely sexist compliments towards the non-Native women of Alaska:
In all of the larger settlements and at the army posts the presence of refined and educated women who have followed their husbands into the country has done much to mitigate the loneliness and discomforts of life in the far-away Territory. Since their coming the bare walls of the soldiers’ quarters adn the rude interiors of the civilian’s log house have been transformed into home-like appearance by the addition of draperies and pictures. The customary pile of tin cans and refuse which marked the abode of the batchelor has been effaced, and its place neat little kitchen gardens are to be seen, while in every house in which a woman has come to live the windows bloom with potted plants and the rough casements and doorways are overrun with climbing vines. It is due to the influence of these good women that men who had grown careless in dress and speech again assumed the garb of respectability and once more took up the habits and customs of civilization, so that to-day the visitor at any of the settlements will see nothing extraordinary in either the dress or conduct of the better class of the community.
Anthropology? Classism? Home Sickness? Wishful Thinking? You decide.
Filed under: alaska, books, history | Tagged: idealism, sexism, women
