Fur Trade Quarterly

This outfit is located a bit to the west of my personal definition of the Midwest, but it sounds way too good not to pass on. Would you pay good money to subscribe to a periodical called The Museum of the Fur Trade Quarterly?

Well, judging from what Heather Cox Richardson says at The Historical Society, you should. The focus on daily oddments -- a particular kind of tobacco, the indispensability of cats on the frontier -- how could a genealogist or microhistorian not love it?

The museum includes material on the Great Lakes and the War of 1812. Its book-publishing arm, the Fur Press, has begun publishing a projected six-volume encyclopedia of the fur trade:

1. Firearms of the Fur Trade (2011)
2. Gun Accessories & Hand Weapons of the Fur Trade
3. Tools & Utensils of the Fur Trade
4. Clothing & Textiles of the Fur Trade (2012)
5. Ornaments & Art Supplies of the Fur Trade
6. Provisions of the Fur Trade (2014)

If you're in the neighborhood -- Chadron, Dawes County, Nebraska, in the far northwestern corner of the state -- check it out. Meanwhile, if you're curious but don't want to subscribe based on a second-hand testimonial, in my part of the Midwest, Worldcat.org tells us that TMFTQ is held by the following libraries: the University of Notre Dame, Chicago Public, the Newberry, Allen County (Indiana), Michigan State University, and DePauw University.


Harold Henderson, "Fur Trade Quarterly," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 17 July 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]