Fact and fancy in history and biography: the case of Greenstockings
Abstract Greenstockings was the name that the members of Sir John Franklin's first Arctic Land Expedition gave to a young Dene woman during their winter residence at Fort Enterprise in 1820–21. All the officers' journals remark on her physical beauty, a reputed beauty that subsequently put...
| Published in: | Polar Record |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2001
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s003224740002670x https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S003224740002670X |
| Summary: | Abstract Greenstockings was the name that the members of Sir John Franklin's first Arctic Land Expedition gave to a young Dene woman during their winter residence at Fort Enterprise in 1820–21. All the officers' journals remark on her physical beauty, a reputed beauty that subsequently put her at the centre of numerous rumours and accounts. Historians know little about her other than her physical attractiveness and her age, although Greenstockings might have borne a child to one of Franklin's officers, and male jealousy over her might have put the expedition at serious risk. In spite of the paucity of factual information, Greenstockings has been cast as a central character in a poem by Franklin's first wife and in an award-winning book by Canadian novelist Rudy Wiebe. These and other pieces of information show the way that different perspectives can allow for different representations of historical figures. |
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