Our most recent find of the week is our first that
deals with music and the founding of the State of Alaska. Before you get your heart set on reading
about early Alaskan music, however, (and, honestly, who isn't hoping for that?)
we will let you down gently and tell you that the two topics aren't exactly
connected to each other for the purposes of this week's find.
The book
that held our discovery is a 1943 hardcover printing of "Lord of Alaska:
The Story of Baranov and the Russian Adventure." Written by Hector Chevigny, it tells the
often forgotten story of how the territory now known as the State of Alaska was
actually discovered and initially settled by Russia in 1748. As America and Britain began disputing
Russia's ownership of both the Alaskan territory and the northwest coast of
North America in 1812, the Russians gave up some of the coastline and began to
lose interest in the Alaskan territory.
In desperate need of money after losing the Crimean War in the 1850s,
Russia sold the territory to the United States in 1867 for 7.2 million dollars
- a bargain (by today's standards) for a
landmass that is roughly the size of one-fifth of the 48 continental states put
together!
In-between pages 196-197 was our discovery - a Sigmund Freud brand
guitar pick. New and never taken off its
original packaging, the guitar pick is .7mm thick, making it an extra light, or
thin pick. Less likely to cause
tendonitis due to its thinness, this type would have been chosen by a player of
a high-quality acoustic guitar. Believe
it or not, the Sigmund Freud pick that we discovered was actually polished for
30 hours to prevent snagging on the strings and overall, took one workweek to
manufacture!
You may
be even more interested to learn how the guitar pick evolved to what it is
today. Originally created from feather
quills, the composition of the pick transitioned in the 19th century to
tortoise shells, or sea turtles, as they were found to be more durable and produced
a better sound quality. If you are
wondering if the harvesting of tortoise shells for such a purpose helped to
land the reptile on the endangered species list, you would be correct! In fact, it is now illegal to manufacture
anything from tortoise shell and any existing picks made from such material
require documentation that affirms their antique status. If you look to purchase a pick today, you
have over 50 different shapes to choose from and you are most likely to find
one made of celluloid, (a form of plastic) though you can still purchase some
that are composed of bone, graphite, ceramic, animal horn, copper, brass and
rubber. Be sure to file this info away
somewhere permanent in your brain for later use when attempting to impress the
guitarist in your life!
Chevigny's "Lord of Alaska: The Story of Baranov and the Russian
Adventure" and the Sigmund Freud pick can be purchased for 7.2 million
dollars - ahem...we mean, $4.99. Ok, ok,
they are not quite worth what Alaska was in 1867! You can catch up with our previous finds of
the week on the used book floor at bayswaterbooks.com and on facebook. Better yet, stop by the store in Center
Harbor and check out the used book floor for yourself!
