Top of page

Book/Printed Material The unfinished autobiography of Henry Hastings Sibley, together with a selection of hitherto unpublished letters from the thirties.

View 84 images in sequence.
Transcript: PDF  |  XML

About this Item

Title

  • The unfinished autobiography of Henry Hastings Sibley, together with a selection of hitherto unpublished letters from the thirties.

Summary

  • This account focuses on the fur trade experiences of Henry Hastings Sibley (1811-1891), better known as commander of the military forces suppressing the Sioux [Dakota] uprisings of 1862 and 1863, and, in 1858, Minnesota's first governor. Sibley was born in Detroit to a prominent family of New England ancestry but spurned a settled life in that community for a more adventurous career, including a stint as a clerk for John Jacob Astor, and later as the American Fur Company's agent in trading with the Sioux [Dakota]. He began this reminiscence in 1883, at the age of 73, and seems to have added to it as late as 1886. The events he writes about, however, do not extend beyond 1835. Sibley shares his insights about voyageurs, native Americans, and life in military forts and trading settlements, although little of this material relates specifically to Minnesota. There is some commentary on settlements at Mackinac, Milwaukee, St. Peter's (Mendota), and Chicago, as well as the city of Detroit, where cholera reached epidemic proportions in the first half of the nineteenth century. The book also contains eleven letters from Sibley to Ramsay Crooks, agent and eventual president of the American Fur Company.

Names

  • Sibley, Henry Hastings, 1811-1891.
  • Blegen, Theodore Christian, 1891-1969.

Created / Published

  • Minneapolis, Minn., The Voyageur Press, Fred Totten Phelps, 1932.

Headings

  • -  Sibley, Henry Hastings,--1811-1891
  • -  Fur trade--Northwest, Old

Notes

  • -  Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site.
  • -  "Number 23 of the two hundred special copies."

Medium

  • 4 p.l., 3-75 p., 1 l. incl. front. (mounted port.) 26 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • F606 .S56

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 33003854

Online Format

  • online text
  • image
  • pdf

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress is not aware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title 17, U.S.C.) or any other restrictions in the materials in the Pioneering the Upper Midwest: Books from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, ca. 1820-1910 materials. The Library of Congress is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, General Collections and Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Further copyright information is also available at American Memory and Copyright.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Sibley, Henry Hastings, and Theodore Christian Blegen. The unfinished autobiography of Henry Hastings Sibley, together with a selection of hitherto unpublished letters from the thirties. Minneapolis, Minn., The Voyageur Press, Fred Totten Phelps, 1932. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/33003854/.

APA citation style:

Sibley, H. H. & Blegen, T. C. (1932) The unfinished autobiography of Henry Hastings Sibley, together with a selection of hitherto unpublished letters from the thirties. Minneapolis, Minn., The Voyageur Press, Fred Totten Phelps. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/33003854/.

MLA citation style:

Sibley, Henry Hastings, and Theodore Christian Blegen. The unfinished autobiography of Henry Hastings Sibley, together with a selection of hitherto unpublished letters from the thirties. Minneapolis, Minn., The Voyageur Press, Fred Totten Phelps, 1932. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/33003854/>.