ABOUT THE BOOK

George Washington Sears wrote Woodcraft to teach camping, fishing, and hunting techniques. Sears learned these skills from a young Indigenous man named Nessmuk. Sears used these skills later on in his canoe camping trips to the Adirondacks. Based on this experience, Sears used Nessmuk as his pen name for Woodcraft. Sears’s connection to the region is guided by his travels to the Adirondacks.

This copy of Woodcraft catches the reader’s eye with its unique design. The hard-bound crimson red cover jumps out with its gilded embossings. These inscriptions include Nessmuk’s name on the bottom right-hand corner, a stamp of the publisher’s name at the top left-hand corner, and a drawing of a hatchet in the center of the front cover with the title written along its handle. The book cover was made with a cloth-like covering that wrapped around pastedown, a board pasted to the front cover.

This book contains multiple inscriptions and notes revealing who had possession of this copy at a given time. Starting with the earliest written letter, a historian sent the book with a letter to Dan Brenan, the editor who wrote an introduction to The Adirondack Letters by George Washington Sears. A book plate by Brenan was inscribed with a brief note and pasted on the inside of the front cover. A note written by Paul Jamieson lies on top of the front page, letting the reader know that this specific copy of Woodcraft was passed on to him by Dan Brenan, and then Paul Jamieson gave it to St. Lawrence University Special Collections along with his papers. George Washington Sears promoted outdoor recreation through Woodcraft by dedicating each chapter to a certain aspect of entertainment in the wilderness. -Emerson Rath ’28

 

George Washington Sears (Nessmuk)
Woodcraft, 1891
Hard-bound book
RBR SK 601.S43 1891, copy 2
Special Collections
Owen D. Young Library
St. Lawrence University
Canton, NY.