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Introduction
Introduction
Webber was an English artist who accompanied Captain Cook on his third voyage of discovery around the Pacific, which took place 1776-1780. The goal of this voyage was to discover the famed Northwest Passage, a sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Arctic. During this voyage, Cook explored and mapped the Northern Pacific coast from Puget Sound of Seattle all the way to the Bering Strait, and on the way named many Alaska locations such as Cook Inlet (you've probably heard of that one before!).
Captain Cook's two ships, the Resolution and Discovery, negotiating ice north of the Bering Strait, by John Webber
While the voyage was not successful in completing the Northwest passage (Cook had to turn around due to sea ice a few weeks after entering the Bering Strait), he did make the first complete mapping of the Alaska coastline to the Arctic. These maps were of such high quality that they were the standard charts until the 1900s. Along the way Webber made numerous paintings of the native peoples he encountered. In Alaska his work focused on the Aleut, Alutiiq, and Yupik peoples. These are among the first artistic representations of Alaska Natives, leaving a visual record of the people and culture of Alaska at the time of first contact.
Below is a slide show of 8 drawings made by Webber. I would suggest selecting full screen viewing.
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