Research Catalog

Title

Beardmore : the Viking hoax that rewrote history / Douglas Hunter.

Author

Hunter, Doug, 1959-

Publication

• Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2018]
• ©2018

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xv, 475 pages, 17 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps; 24 cm.

Summary

"In 1936, long before the discovery of the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, the Royal Ontario Museum made a sensational acquisition: the contents of a Viking grave that prospector Eddy Dodd said he had found on his mining claim east of Lake Nipigon. The relics remained on display for two decades, challenging understandings of when and where Europeans first reached the Americas. In 1956 the discovery was exposed as an unquestionable hoax, tarnishing the reputation of the museum director, Charles Trick Currelly, who had acquired the relics and insisted on their authenticity. Drawing on an array of archival sources, Douglas Hunter reconstructs the notorious hoax and its many players. Beardmore unfolds like a detective story as the author sifts through the voluminous evidence and follows the efforts of two unlikely debunkers, high-school teacher Teddy Elliott and government geologist T.L. Tanton, who find themselves up against Currelly and his scholarly allies. Along the way, the controversy draws in a who's who of international figures in archaeology, Scandinavian studies, and the museum world, including anthropologist Edmund Carpenter, whose mid-1950s crusade against the find's authenticity finally convinced scholars and curators that the grave was a fraud. Shedding light on museum practices and the state of the historical and archaeological professions in the mid-twentieth century, Beardmore offers an unparalleled view inside a major museum scandal, to show how power can be exercised across professional networks and hamper efforts to arrive at the truth."--

Series Statement

Carleton Library series ; 246

Uniform Title

Carleton library series ; 246.

Alternative Title

Viking hoax that rewrote history

Subjects

• Museums > Acquisitions
• America
• Vikings
• Ontario
• Discovery and exploration, Norse
• Antiquities
• Vikings > Ontario
• Royal Ontario Museum History
• Museums > Acquisitions > Ontario > Toronto
• Ontario > Antiquities
• Royal Ontario Museum
• History
• Archaeology > Private collections
• Hoaxes > Ontario
• Ontario > Toronto
• Royal Ontario Museum Archaeological collections
• America > Discovery and exploration > Norse

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

JFE 18-9336

ISBN

• 0773554661
• 9780773554665

OCLC

1028890032

Author

Hunter, Doug, 1959- author.

Title

Beardmore : the Viking hoax that rewrote history / Douglas Hunter.

Publisher

Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2018]

Copyright Date

©2018

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Carleton Library series ; 246

Carleton library series ; 246.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Research Call Number

JFE 18-9336