Richard Austin Pierce

Richard Austin "Dick" Pierce (born July 26, 1918 in Manteca , California, † September 14, 2004 in Kingston , Canada ) was an American historian, author and editor. He was considered one of the leading experts on the history of Russian America .

Life

Born and raised in Manteca , California, Richard Pierce served in the US Army from 1941 to 1945 during World War II . After the war, he discovered his passion for the history of Russia when he took a Russian course as part of his civil service career . He then traveled extensively to Siberia , Central Asia and the Caucasus .

Since the late 1970s, Pierce concentrated more on not only publishing his own works in collaboration with the University of Alaska Press and his self-publisher Limestone Press , but also increasingly promoting other authors and scholars, and in particular , in the context of the liberalization of Russian cultural life Support translations from Russian.

Due to his wife's origin and language skills, Pierce had an increased interest in German and Scandinavian, especially Finnish, sources. The additional knowledge about the life and origin of the two Finnish-born chief administrators of the Russian-American company , Arvid Adolf Etholen and Iwan Furuhelm , for example, is based on his work (as part of his series The Russian Governors: Builders of Alaska, 1818-1867 ).

Richard Pierce died in 2004 at the age of 86, shortly after his wife passed away. The couple left a son and daughter.

academic career

• 1940 BA - University of California at Berkeley
• 1952 MA - University of California at Berkeley
• 1956 Ph.D. - University of California at Berkeley
• 1959–1983 Professor of History - Queen's University , Kingston / Ontario
• 1988–1998 Professor of History - University of Alaska, Fairbanks
• since 1998 professor emeritus

Awards

• 1953-1954 Fulbright - Fellow .
• 1965 Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation , New York.
• 2001 (together with the anthropologist Lydia T. Black (1925–2007)) Russian Order of Friendship from the hand of the Russian Consul General in recognition of the contribution of the two awardees to the historical research of Russian America. The award is rarely given to American citizens and was given to American scientists for the first time that year.
• 2002 Alaska History Award from the Alaska Historical Society

Publications

Richard Pierce wrote or edited more than 60 publications. Probably his most important publication is the unique edition of short biographies of historical persons in the history of Russian America:

• Russian America: A Biographical Dictionary . Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario 1990.

Publications as author

• Russian Rule in Central Asia, 1867–1917 . PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1956.
• Georg Anton Schäffer, Russia's man in Hawaii, 1815–1817 . In: Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1963, pp. 3-23.
• Ivan Petrof and the Far Northwest . In: Journal of the West, Vol. 3, No. 4 (October), 1964, pp. 436-439.
• Russia's Hawaiian Adventure, 1815-1817 . University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles 1965.
• New Light on Ivan Petroff, Historian of Alaska . In: Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 1, 1968, pp. 1-10.
• Alaskan Shipping, 1867-1878, Arrivals and Departures at the Port of Sitka . Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario 1972.
• Alaska's Russian Governors: Johan Hampus Furuhjelm . In: Alaska Journal 2, No. 4, 1972, pp. 21-24.
• Hector Chevigny: Historian of Russian America . In: Alaska Journal 15, No. 4 (Autumn), 1985, pp. 33-37.
• Builders of Alaska. The Russian Governors 1818-1867 . University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks 1986.

Publications as co-author

• with A. Doll: Alaskan Treasure: Russian Skin Money . In: Alaska 35, No. 11, 1969, p. 22.
• with Frank H. Sloss: The Hutchinson, Kohl Story: A Fresh Look . In: Pacific Northwest Quarterly, 62, No. 1, 1971, pp. 1-6.
• with George V. Lantzeff: Eastward to Empire: Exploration and Conquest on the Russian Open Frontier, to 1750 . McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal 1973.
• with Lydia T. Black: Russian America and the Finns . In: Terra (Los Angeles) 29, No. 2/3 (Winter / Spring), 1990/1991, pp. 18-29.

Further publication as editor

• with JH Winslow: HMS Sulfur on the Northwest and California Coasts, 1837 and 1839 . Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario 1979.
• MD Tebenkov: Atlas of the northwest coasts of America. From Bering Strait to Cape Corrientes and the Aleutian Islands with several sheets on the northeast coast of Asia , first edition: Kingston, Ontario 1852; New edition: Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario 1981.
• The Russian-American Company. Correspondence of the Governors. Communications Sent 1818 . Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario 1984.
• Russia in North America. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Russian America. Sitka, Alaska, Aug. 19-22, 1987 . Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario 1990.
• with Marina Ramsay and Aleksandr Alekseev: The Destiny of Russian America 1741–1867 . The Limestone Press, Kingston, Ontario 1990.
• with Katherine L. Arndt: A Construction History of Sitka, Alaska, as Documented in the Records of the Russian-American Company . Sitka National Historical Park, Sitka, 2nd ed. 2003.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Marquis Who's Who .
2. ^ Obituary in the Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2004.
3. ↑ The publishing house was named after Pierce's place of residence and work in Kingston / Ontario, which is also called Limestone City (limestone) due to its rich limestone deposits . Today the University of Alaska Press takes over the functions of Limestone Press.
4. ^ John Simon Guggenheim Foundation - Richard Austin Pierce. In: gf.org. Retrieved February 13, 2016 . 
5. ^ Cornerstone - Faculty & and Staff Newsletter of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 15th June 2001.
6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.