Smithsonian geographer and photographer Wilfred E. Richard and anthropologist William W. Fitzhugh have long been fascinated by northern climates and northern lifestyles. They joined forces to create “Maine to Greenland: Exploring the Maritime Far Northeast,” published this fall by the Smithsonian Institute. Photographs from the book will be exhibited at the Camden Public Library during the month of November, and Will Richard will give a combined book talk and gallery lecture at the library on Tuesday evening, November 4, at 7:00 pm.
“Maine to Greenland” is a testament to one of the world’s great geographic regions: the Maritime Far Northeast. For more than three decades, Fitzhugh and Richard have explored the Northeast’s Atlantic corridor and its history, habitat, and culture. Today, green technology, climate change, and the opening of the Arctic Ocean have transformed the Maritime Far Northeast from an icy frontier into a global resource zone and an increasingly integrated international crossroads. In a rapidly converging world, people have much to learn from the historic northeast cultures as they have adapted to, rather than changed, their environments during the past 10,000 years. “Maine to Greenland” is not only a complete account of the region’s unique culture and environment, but also a timely reminder of the very real consequences of climate change. The northwest Atlantic coastal region was once well-known to Europeans and Americans, but sank into obscurity at the closing of the great cod fisheries. Now, the region is re-emerging as a result of climate change, the political emergence of Native people, and the opening of the Arctic Ocean.
Wilfred E. Richard holds a PhD in geography from the University of Waterloo, Faculty of Environmental Studies of Ontario, Canada, and an MA in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is a Research Collaborator with the Smithsonian’s Arctic Studies Center and a Research Fellow with Greenland’s Uummannaq Polar Institute. Richard is also a Registered Maine Guide.
The book explores a “macroregion” that defies national boundaries as it includes the United States, Canada, and Greenland and spans three climate zones and contains five ecosystems. The story includes Maine, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, northern Quebec, Labrador, Baffin Island (part of the territory of Nunavut, created for Canada’s indigenous Inuit population), Ellesmere Island, and Greenland.
“In addition to Richard’s exquisite photographs of caribou and icebergs, polar bears, and lighthouses, “Maine to Greenland” also includes sidebars on such topics as Robert Peary and Donald MacMillan’s early twentieth century polar expeditions; the International Appalachian Trail; and the history behind L’Anse Aux Meadows, the only known Norse site on the North American mainland,” said June Sawyers in a review in the Chicago Tribune Travel Section.
Thomas Urquhart reviewed the book in the Portland Press Herald, saying, “Each chapter is a small encyclopedia that deals with the area’s culture, history, and ecology, but also includes vignettes of the people the authors encountered on their travels. . . . The succession of colonists that started with the Norsemen a thousand years ago has made it a rich history. After the Vikings came Basque and Portuguese fishermen followed by the thrust and parry of the French and British empires. Their impact is to be read in the names and customs of the land today.
“Not surprisingly, given the rapidity with which it is affecting northern latitudes – the Northwest Passage became ice-free for the first time in recorded history in 2007 – global climate change is a major concern. In a separate chapter, its progress is documented with maps, time lines, and personal anecdotes. Among the researchers’ major worries while on expeditions is the increasing number of icebergs, spawned by retreating glaciers, through which their vessel must thread its way.”
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