Tracking down Horatio Hale's notebooks [fwd]

[David Robertson]

[From SSILA electronic bulletin #226 -- reposted here by Dave R.]

226.1  Correspondence
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* Tracking down Horatio Hale's notebooks
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>>From Victor Golla (golla at ssila.org) 1 August 2005:

Horatio Hale, America's first great anthropological linguist, collected
important data on both Polynesian and American Indian languages during
his four-year stint as "philologist" for the Wilkes Expedition (1838-42).
He published much of his material in the expedition's report (volume 6,
"Ethnography and Philology", 1846), but there is certainly more that
could be learned from his original notes and journals.  This is par-
ticularly true of his pioneering field work in the Pacific Northwest
in 1841, where we are unsure even of his itinerary.

These manuscripts have long been unlocatable.  It was at one time
believed that they were destroyed in a fire that swept through Hale's
house in Ontario after his death in 1896.  Clear evidence has emerged,
however, that they survived to be sold at auction in Philadelphia in
May 1911, together with much of Hale's personal library.

The sale was conducted by Freeman's auction house for the bookseller
Stan. V. Henkels, and the items on auction are listed in Henkels'
catalogue #1033.  Among these are (item 570) "Original Manuscript Essay
on the Language of the Oregon Indians, about 100 pp. 8vo, sheep," and
(item 593) "Original Manuscript Note Books, containing his Essays on
the Philology of the Various Countries Visited by the Commodore Wilkes
Expedition. 18 vols. 4to and 12mo. An interesting lot, containing much
material on the Languages of the Natives of the Sandwich Islands, China,
American Indians, &c."

One of us (Krauss) tried to follow this up in 2001, only to learn that
the pertinent Henkels records had recently been destroyed.  He was able,
however, to locate an annotated copy of the sale catalogue at the
American Antiquarian Society.  In this copy, item 570 is noted as "La.
bya", and "[$]8.00 Kay", and  item 593 as "Dalton ua" and "[$]5.00 Jones."
Krauss has tried to track down "Kay" and "Jones," the apparent purchasers,
but with no real success.

The manuscripts are presumably out there somewhere.  We would be grateful
for any suggestions or leads, and would be delighted to hear from anyone
who would like to join us in this scholarly detective work.  Krauss has
a thick correspondence file he would be willing to share with fellow
sleuths.

  --Victor Golla (golla at ssila.org)
        Michael Krauss (ffmek at uaf.edu)

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