Canoes: A Natural History in North America

Neuzil, Mark; Sims, Norman

Mark Neuzil and Norman Sims

2016

This is the story of the canoe, that singular American artifact so little changed over time. Featured here are canoes old and new, from birch bark to dugout to carbon fiber; the people who made them; and the adventures they shared. With features of technology, industry, art, and survival, the canoe carries us deep into the natural and cultural history of North America.

Follow author Mark Neuzil on Twitter: @mrneuzil

An illustrated poster depicting a solitary deer drinking water in a wooded area.

WPA Poster

From Chapter 7: The Human-Powered Movement

Frank S. Nicholson, poster for the National Park Service, c. 1936–1940. This poster is from the NYC Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which sponsored artists of almost all stripes during the Great Depression. Nicholson was among almost ten thousand artists who were supported by the WPA’s Federal Art Project.

Friends of the Wilderness

From Chapter 7: The Human-Powered Movement

Groups interested in preserving canoe country from development sprang up all over the continent. Canoes were often used as images of a free and quiet outdoors experience, including this poster with artwork by Francis Lee Jaques, ca. 1949.

An illustrated poster depicting a square-stern canoe with a motor traveling on the BWCA.

Boundary Waters Conservation Alliance

From Chapter 7: The Human-Powered Movement

In the late 1970s, legislation to ban motors from canoe country in Minnesota was a controversial issue.

Canoes: A Natural History in North America

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WPA Poster

Friends of the Wilderness

Boundary Waters Conservation Alliance