The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued. Historically it had a large impact on the exploration and colonization of Siberia, northern North America and the South Shetland and South Sandwich Islands. Today the importance of fur trade has diminished and is currently centered around fur farms and authorized wildlife hunting, but remains controversial due to the cruelty involved and conflicts with the tourism industry. Several animal rights organizations oppose the fur trade, while supporters often cite their methods as not being cruel, that the animal populations are abundant and their rights to practice a traditional lifestyle should be respected. The use of fur on some items today has been partly substituted by synthetic imitations.

Russian fur trade

Before the colonization of the Americas, Russia was a major supplier of fur-pelts to Western Europe and parts of Asia. Fur was a major Russian export as trade developed in the Early Middle Ages ( 500-1000 AD/CE ), first through the Baltic and Black Seas. With the development of railways, Russia traded through the German city of Leipzig. In 1950 it came to an abrupt stop.

Originally, Russia exported a majority in raw furs of the pelts of martens, beavers, wolves, foxes, squirrels and hares. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Russians tamed Siberia, a region rich in many mammal species, such as Arctic fox, lynx, sable, sea otter and stoat (ermine). In the search for the prized sea otter (pelts first used in China), and, later the northern fur seal, the Russian Empire expanded into North America, notably Alaska. Between the 17th and second half of the 19th century, Russia was the largest supplier of fur in the world. The fur trade played a vital role in the development of Siberia, the Russian Far East and the Russian colonization of the Americas. To this day sable is a regional symbol of Ural Sverdlovsk oblast and Siberian Novosibirsk, Tyumen and Irkutsk oblasts of Russia.

The European discovery of North America, with its vast forests and wildlife, particularly the beaver, led to the continent becoming a major supplier in the 17th century of fur pelts for the fur-felt hat and fur trimming and garment trades of Europe. Fur was a major source of warmth in clothing, critical prior to the organization of coal distribution. Portugal also held a big part in fur trading around the 1400s.

North American fur trade

The North American fur trade was a central part of the early history of contact between European-Americans and the native peoples of what is now the United States and Canada. In 1578 there were 350 European fishing vessels at Newfoundland. Sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for the natives' well-worn pelts. The pelts in demand were beaver, sea otter and (in the 1870s) buffalo, as well as occasionally deer, bear, ermine and skunk.

Fur robes were blankets of sewn-together, native-tanned, beaver pelts. The pelts were called ''castor gras'' in French and "coat beaver" in English, and were soon recognized by the newly developed felt-hat making industry as particularly useful for felting. Some historians, seeking to explain the term ''castor gras'', have assumed that coat beaver was rich in human oils from having been worn so long (much of the top-hair was worn away through usage, exposing the valuable under-wool), and that this is what made it attractive to the hatters. This seems unlikely, since grease interferes with the felting of wool, rather than enhancing it. By the 1580s, beaver "wool" was the major starting material of the French felt-hatters. Hat makers began to use it in England soon after, particularly after Huguenot refugees brought their skills and tastes with them from France.

Early organization

Captain Chauvin made the first organized attempt to control the fur trade in New France. In 1599 he acquired a monopoly from Henry IV and tried to establish a colony at the mouth of the Saguenay River (Tadoussac, Quebec). French explorers (and Coureur des bois—Étienne Brûlé, Samuel de Champlain, Radisson, La Salle, Le Saeur), while seeking routes through the continent, established relationships with Amerindians and continued to expand the trade of fur pelts for items considered 'common' by the Europeans. Mammal winter pelts were prized for warmth, particularly animal pelts for beaver wool-felt hats, which were an expensive status symbol in Europe. The demand for these beaver wool-felt hats was such that the beaver in Europe and European Russia had largely disappeared through exploitation.

In 1613 Dallas Carite and Adriaen Block headed expeditions to establish fur trade relationships with the Mohawks and Mohicans. By 1614 the Dutch were sending vessels to Manhattan to secure large economic returns from fur trading. The fur trade of New Holland, through the port of New Amsterdam, depended largely on the trading depot at Fort Orange (now Albany), where much of the fur is believed to have originated in Canada, smuggled by entrepreneurs who wished to avoid the government-imposed monopoly there.

England was slower to enter the American fur trade than France and Holland, but as soon as English colonies were established, it was discovered that furs provided the best way for the colonists to remit value back to the mother country. Furs were being dispatched from Virginia soon after 1610, and the Plymouth Colony was sending substantial amounts of beaver to its London agents through the 1620s and 1630s. London merchants also made attempts to take over France's fur trade in the St Lawrence. Taking advantage of one of England's brief wars with France, Sir David Kirke captured Quebec in 1629, and brought the year's produce of furs back to London. Other English merchants also traded for furs in the St. Lawrence in the 1630s, but these were officially discouraged, and soon ceased as France strengthened its presence in Canada. Meanwhile, the New England fur trade expanded, not only inland, but northwards along the coast into the Bay of Fundy region. London's access to high quality furs was greatly increased with the capture of New Amsterdam, whereupon the fur trade of that colony (now called New York) fell into English hands.

The English fur trade entered a new phase in 1668. Two French citizens, Radisson and Groseilliers, had traded with great success west of Lake Superior in 1659-60, but upon their return to Canada most of their furs had been seized by the authorities. Their trading voyage had convinced them that the best fur country was far to the north and west, and could best be reached by ships sailing into Hudson Bay; and their treatment in Canada suggested that they would not find support for their scheme from France. They first went to New England, where they were able to find local support for at least two attempts to reach Hudson Bay, both unsuccessful. Their ideas had reached the ears of English authorities, however, and in 1665 Radisson and Groseilliers were persuaded to go to London. After some setbacks, a number of English investors were found to back another attempt for Hudson Bay. Two ships were sent out in 1668. One, with Radisson aboard, had to turn back, but the other, the Nonsuch, with Groseilliers, did penetrate the Bay. There, trading natives were contacted, a fine cargo of beaver skins was collected, and the expedition returned to London in October 1669. The delighted investors now sought a royal charter, which was obtained the next year. By it, the Hudson's Bay Company was established, and was granted a monopoly to trade into all the rivers that fall into Hudson Bay. From 1670 onwards, the Hudson's Bay Company sent two or three ships into the Bay every year, brought back furs (mainly beaver), and sold them, sometimes by private treaty but usually by public auction. The beaver was bought mainly for the English hat-making trade, while the fine furs went to Holland and Germany.

Meanwhile, in the English southern colonies (established around 1670), the deerskin trade was established based on the export hub of Charleston, South Carolina. Word spread amongst Native hunters that the Europeans would exchange pelts for European-manufactured goods that were highly desired in native communities. Axe heads, knives, awls, fish hooks, cloth of various type and color, woolen blankets, linen shirts, kettles, jewelry, glass beads, muskets, ammunition and powder were some of the major items exchanged on a 'per pelt' basis.

Colonial trading posts in the southern colonies also introduced many types of alcohol (especially brandy and rum) for trade. European traders flocked to the continent and made huge profits off the exchange. A metal axe head, for example, was exchanged for one beaver pelt (also called a 'beaver blanket'). The same pelt could fetch enough to buy dozens of axe heads in England, making the fur trade extremely profitable for the European nations. The iron axe heads replaced stone axe heads which the natives made by hand in a labor-intensive process, so they derived substantial benefits from the trade as well.

Socio-economic ties

Often, the political benefits of the fur trade became more important than the economic aspects. Trade was a way to forge alliances and maintain good relations between different cultures. The fur traders, men of social and financial standing, usually went to North America as young single men and used marriages as the currency of diplomatic ties, marriages and relationships between Europeans and First Nations/Native Americans became common. Traders often married or cohabited with high-ranking Indian women. Fur trappers and other workers usually had relationships with lower ranking women. Many of their children developed their own culture, now called Métis. Their descendants of mixed European and Native American parentage developed their own language and culture. They have been recognized as an ethnic group in Canada. These groups formed a two-tier society, in which descendants of fur traders and chiefs achieved prominence in social and economic circles. Lower-class descendants formed the majority of a separate Métis culture based on hunting, trapping and farming.

Because of the wealth at stake, different European-American governments competed with each other for control of the fur trade with the various native societies. Native Americans sometimes based decisions of which side to support in time of war upon which side provided them with the best trade goods in an honest manner. Because trade was so politically important, it was often heavily regulated in hopes (often futile) of preventing abuse. Unscrupulous traders sometimes cheated natives by plying them with alcohol during the transaction, which subsequently aroused resentment and often resulted in violence.

In 1834 John Jacob Astor, who had created the Pacific Fur Company, which became the largest American fur trading company, retired after recognizing that all fur-bearing animals were becoming scarce. Expanding European settlement displaced native communities from the best hunting grounds. Demand for furs subsided as European fashion trends shifted. The Native Americans' lifestyles were altered by the trade. To continue obtaining European goods on which they had become dependent and to pay off their debts, they often resorted to selling land to the European settlers. Their resentment of the forced sales contributed to future wars.

After the United States became independent, it regulated trading with Native Americans by the Indian Intercourse Act, first passed on July 22, 1790. The Bureau of Indian Affairs issued licenses to trade in the Indian Territory. In 1834 this was defined as most of the United States west of the Mississippi River, where mountain men and traders from Mexico freely operated.

Early exploration parties were often fur-trading expeditions, many of which marked the first recorded instances of Europeans' reaching particular regions of North America. For example, Abraham Wood sent fur-trading parties on exploring expeditions into the southern Appalachian Mountains, discovering the New River in the process. Simon Fraser was a fur trader who explored much of the Fraser River.

The fur trade and economic anthropology

Economic historians and anthropologists have studied the fur trade's important role in early North American economies, but they have been unable to agree on a theoretical framework to describe native economic patterns.

John C. Phillips and J.W. Smurr tied the fur trade to an imperial struggle for power, positing that the fur trade served both as an incentive for expanding and as a method for maintaining dominance. Dismissing the experience of individuals, the authors searched for connections on a global stage that revealed its “high political and economic importance.” E.E. Rich brought the economic purview down a level, focusing on the role of trading companies and their men as the ones who “opened up” much of Canada’s territories instead of the role of the nation-state in opening up the continent.

Rich’s other work gets to the heart of the formalist/substantivist debate that dominated the field or, as some came to believe, muddied it. Historians such as Harold Innis had long taken the formalist position, especially in Canadian history, believing that neoclassical economic principles affect non-Western societies just as they do Western ones. Starting in the 1950s, however, substantivists such as Karl Polanyi challenged these ideas, arguing instead that primitive societies could engage in alternatives to traditional Western market trade; namely, gift trade and administered trade. Rich picked up these arguments in an influential article in which he contended that Indians had “a persistent reluctance to accept European notions or the basic values of the European approach” and that “English economic rules did not apply to the Indian trade.” Indians were savvy traders, but they had a fundamentally different conception of property, which confounded their European trade partners. Abraham Rotstein subsequently fit these arguments explicitly into Polanyi’s theoretical framework, claiming that “administered trade was in operation at the Bay and market trade in London.”

Arthur J. Ray permanently changed the direction of economic studies of the fur trade with two influential works that presented a modified formalist position in between the extremes of Innis and Rotstein. “This trading system,” Ray explained, “is impossible to label neatly as ‘gift trade', or ‘administered trade', or ‘market trade', since it embodies elements of all these forms.” Indians engaged in trade for a variety of motivations. Reducing these to simple economic or cultural dichotomies, as the formalists and substantivists had done, was a fruitless simplification that obscured more than it revealed. Moreover, Ray used trade accounts and account books in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s archives for masterful qualitative analysis and pushed the boundaries of the field’s methodology. Following Ray’s position, Bruce M. White also helped to create a more nuanced picture of the complex ways in which native populations fit new economic relationships into existing cultural patterns.

Richard White, while admitting that the formalist/substantivist debate was “old, and now tired,” attempted to reinvigorate the substantivist position. Echoing Ray’s moderate position that cautioned against easy simplifications, White advanced a simple argument against formalism: “Life was not a business, and such simplifications only distort the past.” White argued instead that the fur trade occupied part of a “middle ground” in which Europeans and Indians sought to accommodate their cultural differences. In the case of the fur trade, this meant that the French were forced to learn from the political and cultural meanings with which Indians imbued the fur trade. Cooperation, not domination, prevailed.

Present

There are about 80,000 trappers in Canada (based on trapping licenses), of whom about half are Indigenous peoples.

Maritime Fur Trade

The Maritime Fur Trade was a ship-based fur trade system that focused on acquiring furs of sea otters and other animals from the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and natives of Alaska. The furs were mostly sold in China in exchange for tea, silks, porcelain, and other Chinese goods, which were then sold in Europe and the United States. The maritime fur trade was pioneered by the Russians, working east from Kamchatka along the Aleutian Islands to the southern coast of Alaska. British and Americans entered during the 1780s, focusing on what is now the coast of British Columbia. The trade boomed around the turn of the 19th century. A long period of decline began in the 1810s. As the sea otter population was depleted, the maritime fur trade diversified and transformed, tapping new markets and commodities while continuing to focus on the Northwest Coast and China. It lasted until the middle to late 19th century. Russians controlled most of the coast of what is now Alaska during the entire era. The coast south of Alaska saw fierce competition between, and among, British and American trading vessels. The British were the first to operate in the southern sector, but were unable to compete against the Americans who dominated from the 1790s to the 1830s. The British Hudson's Bay Company entered the coast trade in the 1820s with the intention of driving the Americans away. This was accomplished by about 1840. In its late period the maritime fur trade was largely conducted by the British Hudson's Bay Company and the Russian-American Company.

The term "maritime fur trade" was coined by historians to distinguish the coastal, ship-based fur trade from the continental, land-based fur trade of, for example, the North West Company and American Fur Company. Historically, the maritime fur trade was not known by that name, rather it was usually called the "North West Coast trade" or "North West Trade". The term "North West" was rarely spelled as the single word "Northwest", as is common today.

The maritime fur trade brought the Pacific Northwest coast into a vast, new international trade network, centered on the north Pacific Ocean, global in scope, and based on capitalism but not, for the most part, on colonialism. A triangular trade network emerged linking the Pacific Northwest coast, China, the Hawaiian Islands (only recently discovered by the Western world), Britain, and the United States (especially New England). The trade had a major effect on the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast, especially the Aleut, Tlingit, Haida, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Chinook peoples. There was a rapid increase of wealth among the Northwest Coast natives, along with increased warfare, potlatching, slaving, depopulation due to epidemic disease, and enhanced importance of totems and traditional nobility crests. The indigenous culture was not overwhelmed however but rather flourished, while simultaneously undergoing rapid change. The use of Chinook Jargon arose during the maritime fur trading era and remains a distinctive aspect of Pacific Northwest culture. Native Hawaiian society was similarly affected by the sudden influx of Western wealth and technology, as well as epidemic diseases. The trade's effect on China and Europe was minimal. For New England, the maritime fur trade and the significant profits it made helped revitalize the region, contributing to the transformation of New England from an agrarian to an industrial society. The wealth generated by the maritime fur trade was invested in industrial development, especially textile manufacturing. The New England textile industry in turn had a large effect on slavery in the United States, increasing the demand for cotton and helping make possible the rapid expansion of the cotton plantation system across the Deep South.

The most profitable furs were those of sea otters, especially the northern sea otter, ''Enhydra lutris kenyoni'', which inhabited the coastal waters between the Columbia River to the south and Cook Inlet to the north. The fur of the Californian southern sea otter, ''E. l. nereis'', was less highly prized and thus less profitable. After the northern sea otter was hunted to local extinction, maritime fur traders shifted to California until the southern sea otter was likewise nearly extinct. The British and American maritime fur traders took their furs to the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Canton), where they worked within the established Canton System. Furs from Russian America were mostly sold to China via the Mongolian trading town of Kyakhta, which had been opened to Russian trade by the 1727 Treaty of Kyakhta.

See also

Beaver Wars

Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade

Coureurs de bois and voyageurs

Fur brigade

Harold Innis and the Canadian fur trade

History of Siberia

Hudson's Bay Company

List of fur trading post and forts in North America

Manuel Lisa

Maritime Fur Trade

Mountain men

North West Company

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye

René Auguste Chouteau

Rocky Mountain Fur Company

Russian-American Company

Science and technology in Canada

Sea Mink

Trapping

Footnotes

Bibliography

General Surveys

Chittenden, Hiram Martin. ''The American Fur Trade of the Far West: A History of the Pioneer Trading Posts and Early Fur Companies of the Missouri Valley and the Rocky Mountains and the Overland Commerce with Santa Fe.'' 2 vols. (1902). full text online

Dolin, Eric Jay. ''Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America'' (W.W. Norton & Company; 2010) 442 pages

Phillips, Paul and J.W. Smurr. ''The Fur Trade.'' 2 vols. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961.

Biographies

Berry, Don. ''A Majority of Scoundrels: An Informal History of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.'' New York: Harper, 1961.

Hafen, LeRoy, ed. ''The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West.'' 10 vols. Glendale, California: A.H. Clark Co., 1965-72.

Lavender, David. ''Bent’s Fort.'' Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1954.

Lavender, David. ''The Fist in the Wilderness.'' Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1964.

Oglesby, Richard. ''Manuel Lisa and the Opening of the Missouri Fur Trade.'' Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.

Utley, Robert. ''A Life Wild and Perilous: Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific.'' New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1997.

Economic Studies

Cronon, William. ''Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England.'' New York: Hill and Wang, 1983.

Gibson, James R. ''Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841.'' Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992.

Innis, Harold. ''The Fur Trade in Canada.'' Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1962.

Ray, Arthur J., and Donald B. Freeman. ''"Give Us Good Measure": An Economic Analysis of Relations between the Indians and the Hudson's Bay Company Before 1763.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.

Ray, Arthur J. ''Indians in the Fur Trade: Their Role as Trappers, Hunters, and Middlemen in the Lands Southwest of Hudson Bay, 1660-1870.'' Toronto; Buffalo; London: University of Toronto Press, 1974.

Rotstein, Abraham. “Karl Polanyi’s Concept of Non-Market Trade.” ''The Journal of Economic History'' 30:1 (Mar., 1970): 117-126.

Rich, E.E. ''The Fur Trade and the Northwest to 1857.'' Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1967.

Rich, E.E. “Trade Habits and Economic Motivation Among the Indians of North America.” ''The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science'' 26:1 (Feb., 1960): 35-53.

White, Richard. ''The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815.'' Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

White, Richard. ''The Roots of Dependency: Subsistence, Environment, and Social Change Among the Choctaws, Pawnees, and Navajos.'' Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.

Social Histories: Native Americans

Brown, Jennifer S.H. and Elizabeth Vibert, eds. ''Reading Beyond Words: Contexts for Native History.'' Peterborough, Ontario; Orchard Park, N.Y.: Broadview Press, 1996.

Francis, Daniel and Toby Morantz. ''Partners in Furs: A History of the Fur Trade in Eastern James Bay, 1600-1870.'' Kingston; Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1983.

Holm, Bill and Thomas Vaughan, eds. ''Soft Gold: The Fur Trade & Cultural Exchange on the Northwest Coast of America.'' Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press, 1990.

Krech, Shepard III. ''The Ecological Indian: Myth and History.'' New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Krech, Shepard III, ed. ''Indians, Animals, and the Fur Trade: A Critique of Keepers of the Game.'' Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1981.

Martin, Calvin. ''Keepers of the Game: Indian-Animal Relationships and the Fur Trade''. Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press, 1978.

Martin, Calvin. “The Four Lives of a Micmac Copper Pot.” ''Ethnohistory'' 22:2 (Spring, 1975): 111-133.

Malloy, Mary. ''Souvenirs of the Fur Trade: Northwest Coast Indian Art and Artifacts Collected by American Mariners, 1788-1844''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum Press, 2000.

Vibert, Elizabeth. ''Trader’s Tales: Narratives of Cultural Encounters in the Columbia Plateau, 1807-1846''. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997.

Social Histories: Women, Métis, Voyageurs

Brown, Jennifer S.H. ''Strangers in Blood: Fur Trade Company Families in Indian Country.'' Vancouver; London: University of British Columbia Press, 1980.

Brown, Jennifer S.H. and Jacqueline Peterson, eds. ''The New Peoples: Being and Becoming Métis in North America.'' Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1985.

Giraud, Marcel. ''The Métis in the Canadian West.'' Translated by George Woodcock. Edmonton, Canada: University of Alberta Press, 1986.

Nicks, John. “Orkneymen in the HBC, 1780-1821.” In ''Old Trails and New Directions: Papers of the Third North American Fur Trade Conference''. Edited by Carol M. Judd and Arthur J. Ray, 102-26. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.

Podruchny, Carolyn. ''Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade.'' Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006.

Podruchny, Carolyn. “Werewolves and Windigos: Narratives of Cannibal Monsters in French-Canadian Voyageur Oral Tradition.” ''Ethnohistory'' 51:4 (2004): 677-700.

Sleeper-Smith, Susan. ''Indian Women and French Men: Rethinking Cultural Encounter in the Western Great Lakes.'' Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.

Van Kirk, Sylvia. ''Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670-1870.'' Winnipeg: Watson & Dwywer, 1999.

Regional Histories

Allen, John L. “The Invention of the American West.” In ''A Continent Comprehended'', edited by John L. Allen. Vol. 3 of ''North American Exploration'', edited by John L. Allen, 132-189. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.

Braund, Kathryn E. Holland. ''Deerskins and Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1685-1815''. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.

Faragher, John Mack. “Americans, Mexicans, Métis: A Community Approach to the Comparative Study of North American Frontiers.” In ''Under an Open Sky: Rethinking America’s Western Past'', edited by William Cronon, George Miles, and Jay Gitlin, 90-109. New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company, 1992.

Gibson, James R. ''Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods: The Maritime Fur Trade of the Northwest Coast, 1785-1841.'' Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992.

Gibson, Morgan Arrell. ''Yankees in Paradise: The Pacific Basin Frontier.'' Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993.

Malloy, Mary. ''“Boston Men” on the Northwest Coast: The American Maritime Fur Trade 1788-1844''. Kingston, Ontario; Fairbanks, Alaska: The Limestone Press, 1998.

Ronda, James P. ''Astoria & Empire.'' Lincoln, Nebraska; London: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.

Weber, David. ''The Taos Trappers: The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540-1846.'' Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.

Wishart, David J. ''The Fur Trade of the American West, 1807-1840: A Geographical Synthesis.'' Lincoln, Nebraska; London: University of Nebraska Press, 1979..

Papers of the North American Fur Trade Conferences

The papers from the North American Fur Trade conferences, which are held approximately every five years, not only provide a wealth of articles on disparate aspects of the fur trade, but also can be taken together as a historiographical overview since 1965. They are listed chronologically below. The third conference, held in 1978, is of particular note; the ninth conference, which was held in St. Louis in 2006, has not yet published its papers.

Morgan, Dale Lowell, ed. ''Aspects of the Fur Trade: Selected Papers of the 1965 North American Fur Trade Conference.'' St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1967.

Bolus, Malvina. ''People and Pelts: Selected Papers.'' Winnipeg: Peguis Publishers, 1972.

Judd, Carol M. and Arthur J. Ray, eds. ''Old Trails and New Directions: Papers of the Third North American Fur Trade Conference.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.

Buckley, Thomas C., ed. ''Rendezvous: Selected Papers of the Fourth North American Fur Trade Conference, 1981.'' St. Paul, Minnesota: The Conference, 1984.

Trigger, Bruce G., Morantz, Toby Elaine, and Louise Dechêne. ''Le Castor Fait Tout: Selected Papers of the Fifth North American Fur Trade Conference, 1985.'' Montreal: The Society, 1987.

Brown, Jennifer S. H., Eccles, W. J., and Donald P. Heldman. ''The Fur Trade Revisited: Selected Papers of the Sixth North American Fur Trade Conference, Mackinac Island, Michigan, 1991.'' East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994.

Fiske, Jo-Anne, Sleeper-Smith, Susan, and William Wicken, eds. ''New Faces of the Fur Trade: Selected Papers of the Seventh North American Fur Trade Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1995''. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1998.

Johnston, Louise, ed. ''Aboriginal People and the Fur Trade: Proceedings of the 8th North American Fur Trade Conference, Akwesasne''. Cornwall, Ontario: Akwesasne Notes Pub., 2001.

External links

The Canadian Museum of Civilization - Great Fur Trade Canoes

A Brief History of the Fur Trade

History of the Fur Trade in Russia

History of the Fur Trade in Wisconsin

Museum of the Fur Trade, Chadron, Nebraska USA

The Economic History of the Fur Trade: 1670 to 1870 (EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic History)

Exploration, the Fur Trade and Hudson's Bay Company

Fur trade in the Snake River Valley, Idaho

''The Fur Trade Revisited - Manitoba Historical Society''

* Category:History of the American West Category:History of Canada Category:Animal welfare

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Name	Stella McCartney
Nationality	British
Birth date	September 13, 1971
Birth place	Lambeth, London, England
Education	Central St. Martins
Label name	Stella McCartney, Stella McCartney Kidds, adidas by Stella McCartney
Spouse	Alasdhair Willis (2003-)
Children	Miller, Bailey, Beckett, Reiley
Awards	}}

Stella Nina McCartney (born 13 September 1971) is an English fashion designer. She is the daughter of former Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney and the late photographer and animal rights activist, Linda McCartney.

Early life

Stella McCartney was born in Lambeth, London on 13 September 1971, the second child of former Beatle bassist Sir Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman. She is named after her maternal great-grandmothers: both of Linda McCartney's grandmothers were named Stella. As a young girl, McCartney travelled the globe with her parents and their pop group Wings, along with her siblings: older half-sister Heather (who was legally adopted by Paul McCartney), older sister Mary, and younger brother James. According to her father, the name of Wings was inspired by Stella's difficult birth. As his daughter was being born by emergency caesarean section, Paul sat outside the operating room and prayed that she be born "on the wings of an angel." Wings toured from shortly after her birth in 1971 until 1980.

Despite their fame, the McCartneys wanted their children to lead as normal a life as possible, so Stella and her siblings attended local state schools in East Sussex, one of them being Bexhill College. McCartney has said that while attending state school, she was a victim of bullying, as well as being a bully herself.

Career

Beginning

Stella McCartney became interested in designing clothes at age 13, when she made her first jacket. Three years later, she interned for Christian Lacroix, working on his first fashion design collection, honing her skills working for Edward Sexton, her father's Savile Row tailor for a number of years.

She studied her foundation at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, fashion design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in the early 1990s. Her graduation collection in 1995 was modelled by friends and supermodels Naomi Campbell, Yasmin Le Bon and Kate Moss – for free – at the graduation runway show. The collection was shown to a song penned by her famous father, called "Stella May Day." The show made front-page news, and the entire collection was sold to Tokio, a London boutique. The designs were licensed to Browns, Joseph, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus. In 1998, she designed her sister Mary's wedding dress for her wedding to television producer Alistair Donald.

A lacto-ovo-vegetarian, McCartney does not use fur or leather in her designs and supports PETA. Some of McCartney's designs have text that elaborates on her "no animal" policy; for example, one of her jackets for Adidas says, "suitable for sporty vegetarians" on the sleeve. Stella does use wool, silk, and other animal-derived fabrics in her designs.

In March 1997 McCartney was appointed Creative Director of Paris fashion house Chloé, following in the footsteps of Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld was less than impressed with the house's choice, famously stating, ''"Chloé should have taken a big name. They did, but in music, not fashion. Let's hope she's as gifted as her father."'' Despite initial skepticism, McCartney's designs have enjoyed considerable commercial and critical success. She was accompanied to Chloé by her assistant and friend Phoebe Philo, who later replaced her as design director.

In 2001, McCartney resigned from Chloé in order to enter into an eponymous joint venture with Gucci. The line has four stores; one in New York City which opened September 2002, one in Mayfair, London, which opened April 2004, one in Los Angeles which she opened on her birthday in September 2005 and included an expansion into the perfume market, and most recently one in Hong Kong, which opened in 2008. In 2009, Stella launched a store in Paris in the heart of the Jardins du Palais Royal.

Stella McCartney received the VH1/''Vogue'' Designer of the Year award in 2000. Paul McCartney presented the award to his daughter. She thanked him in her acceptance speech and dedicated the award to her late mother. In 2000, McCartney designed Madonna's wedding dress for her marriage to Guy Ritchie.

In January 2007, McCartney launched a skincare line called CARE. The 100% organic line includes seven products, from a cleansing milk made with lemon balm and apricot to green tea and linden blossom floral water.

Collaborations

In 2004, she designed clothes for Madonna's Re-Invention Tour, Annie Lennox's summer tour, and Gwyneth Paltrow's and Jude Law's costumes for the film ''Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow''.

She also launched a joint-venture line with Adidas, establishing a long-term partnership with the corporation in September 2004. This line is a sports performance collection for women. The collection includes apparel for swim, gym, running, tennis and wintersports, as well as bags. McCartney's favorite pieces in the collection come with a special reflector keychain.. In early 2006, the keychain was in the shape of a pink heart and in later 2006, it was in the shape of a gray wolf's head. In January 2007, Stella McCartney announced that she would be adding a branch called Gym Yoga to her sports range for Adidas. Gym Yoga spring/summer 2007 collection is inspired by ballet and dance uniforms. The collection features double-layered tank tops with deep necklines, low-waisted skinny trousers and lightweight rubber shoes. Her Adidas contract was extended until 2010.

In 2005, she designed a range of clothing and accessories for H&M; to boost public awareness of her own brand and to create more affordable options for her fans. The line was released in November of that year and sold out almost immediately on launch day, due to the similarity (in many cases, almost direct copies) between her expensive main line and the H&M; line. On 12 March 2007, McCartney's limited edition 42-piece range was released to just 100 Target stores exclusively in Australia. The range was priced from $30 for a silk scarf to $200 for a taffeta trench coat. The collection was made in China. Scenes of near hysteria broke out as women stormed the stores to buy the collection. A problem was "clothing scalpers", who bought up large amounts of the range to resell on eBay at a high mark-up. Later, a large number of buyers returned their Stella clothes to Target complaining of strange, non-standard sizing that was bigger than the norm. A Target spokesperson defended the range saying that Stella's look was "generous" and "oversized". Later, returned Stella clothes languished on the racks having had their prices slashed by up to 60 percent.

In January 2008, McCartney's collaboration with lingerie label Bendon was scheduled to be released to department stores, speciality stores and Stella McCartney stores. McCartney was also scheduled, in early 2008, to release a line of handbags for LeSportsac. The collection has 30 to 40 styles and will range from $200–$500. The collection consists of travel bags, luggage, baby accessories and bags for mothers with infants and toddlers. The line is sold at high end retailers, the Los Angeles and New York Stella McCartney stores, select LeSportsac boutiques, and will be available for purchase online.

Since starting her own label, McCartney has also collaborated on projects with several artists including Gary Hume, R. Crumb, Jeff Koons, David Remfry and Ed Ruscha.

In January 2010, McCartney announced she would be collaborating with Disney to create an Alice in Wonderland-inspired jewelry collection.

In October 2010, Stella relaunched her Designers for Target range in Australia. This time around, less crowds ran into the stores and refunds for the products have been significant. The range is priced from 30 dollars AUD to 249 AUD.

Stella McCartney Kids children's wear was launched on 3 November 2010.

In July 2011 she participated at the catwalk of The Brandery fashion show in Barcelona.

She is designing the Adidas sportswear for the British Olympic and Paralympic teams for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Criticism

McCartney has always claimed that she would have been a famous fashion designer even if her father had not been Paul McCartney. However, it has been suggested that Vendome, owners of the Chloé house, appointed her as much for the wave of publicity the appointment would generate as for her talent. In recent times, however, some commentators have said that she is capable. Indeed, ''Vogue'' magazine wrote that "her first collection for the house Chloé, shown in Paris in October 1997, quickly dispelled any doubts about her talent."

In November 2007, Stella designed a silver necklace featuring a single leg, an apparent attack on her father's estranged wife Heather Mills, an amputee. Fashion insiders thought it was "edgy", but also a bit "out of order".

Personal life

McCartney married British publisher Alasdhair Willis on 30 August 2003 in a private Catholic chapel at Mount Stuart House, the ancestral home of the Marquess of Bute on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. McCartney's wedding dress was an updated version of her mother's wedding dress from her March 1969 marriage ceremony to Paul McCartney. She designed the dress with Tom Ford, her boss at Gucci. The service was attended by Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, Pierce Brosnan, and Madonna.

McCartney and Willis have four children: sons Miller Alasdhair James Willis (born 2005) and Beckett Robert Lee Willis in London (born 2008) and daughters Bailey Linda Olwyn Willis (born 2006)Her second daughter, Reiley Dilys Stella Willis (born 2010).

Stella and her husband are members of the Royal British Legion, Paddington Branch. In addition to her elder sisters and younger brother, Stella has a much younger half-sister, Beatrice Milly McCartney, born on 28 October 2003 to her father and his second wife, Heather Mills.

References

External links

Stella McCartney's official site

adidas by Stella McCartney

''Hello! Magazine'' Profile

Jewish Virtual Library biography

"Baby, You're A Star", Christa D'Souza; 1999

Bloomberg - Meatpacking District Draws Levi’s, Loses McCartney

"YSL and Balenciaga Will Be Joining Stella McCartney in Soho" Racked

Category:1971 births Category:English activists Category:English fashion designers Category:Jewish fashion designers Category:English Jews Category:English vegetarians Category:Gucci brands Category:Living people Category:Paul McCartney Category:English people of American descent Category:English people of Russian descent Category:English people of Irish descent Category:People from Lambeth Category:Alumni of the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design Category:High fashion brands Category:Adidas brands Category:Animal rights advocates

cs:Stella McCartney de:Stella McCartney es:Stella McCartney fr:Stella McCartney ko:스텔라 매카트니 it:Stella McCartney hu:Stella McCartney nl:Stella McCartney ja:ステラ・マッカートニー no:Stella McCartney pl:Stella McCartney pt:Stella McCartney ru:Маккартни, Стелла fi:Stella McCartney sv:Stella McCartney

name	Martha Stewart
birth name	Martha Helen Kostyra
birth date	August 03, 1941
birth place	Jersey City, New Jersey, USA
ethnicity	Polish American
alma mater	Barnard College
occupation	Entrepreneur; television and magazine personality
networth	million (2011)
spouse	Andrew Stewart (1961–1989) (divorced)
signature	Martha Stewart signature.svg
website	Official website
children	Alexis Stewart (b. 1965)
relatives	Jude (b. 2011) (granddaughter) }}

Martha Stewart (née Kostyra; born August 3, 1941) is an American business magnate, media personality, author, magazine publisher. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising. Her syndicated talk show, ''Martha'', is broadcast throughout the world, she has written numerous bestselling books, and she is the publisher of ''Martha Stewart Living'' magazine.

In 2004, she was convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale and served five months in a West Virginia federal prison. Although the media widely speculated that the situation would effectively be the end of her media empire, Stewart began a comeback campaign in 2005, with her company returning to profitability the following year.

Early life

Martha Stewart was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to middle-class Polish American parents, Edward "Eddie" Kostyra (c. 1912 – 1979) and Martha Ruszkowski Kostyra (b. September 16, 1914, Buffalo, New York – d. November 16, 2007, Norwalk, Connecticut). She lived in Jersey City until the age of 3, when her family moved to Nutley. She was raised in Nutley along with her five siblings. She took the name "Grace" for her confirmation name before graduating from Nutley High School.

At the age of 15, Stewart was featured in a television commercial for Unilever soap. Her next brush with fame came in 1961, when she became the occasional babysitter for the children of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees. The Mantles had four boys, all under the age of ten and Merlyn Mantle was overwhelmed. Martha would organize birthday parties and babysit for all four. "They would behave for Martha", declared Martha, and her domestic career thus began.

Stewart's mother taught her how to cook and sew. Later, she learned the processes of canning and preserving when she visited her grandparents' home in Buffalo, New York. Her father had a passion for gardening, and passed on much of his knowledge and expertise to his daughter. Stewart was also active in many extracurricular activities, such as the school newspaper and the Art Club. During this time, Stewart began a modeling career. She was hired and appeared in several television commercials and magazines, including one of Tareyton's famous "Smokers would rather fight than switch!" cigarette advertisements. Finishing with straight A's, she was awarded a partial scholarship to Barnard College in New York City.

Initially intending to major in chemistry, she switched to art and European History, and later architectural history. It was around this time that she met and later married Andrew Stewart, on July 1, 1961. She left Barnard but continued her moderately successful modeling career, while her husband finished his law degree at Yale Law School. She returned to Barnard a year later, to graduate with a double major in History and Architectural History. In 1965, her only child, daughter Alexis Stewart, was born.

Martha has been hit by lightning three times.

Career

At this time, Stewart began to hone and develop her business skills. In 1967, she became a stockbroker.

Andrew and she moved to Westport, Connecticut. They purchased and undertook a restoration of the 1805 farmhouse on Turkey Hill Road that would later become the model for the TV studio of the ''Martha Stewart Living'' show. Martha and her husband undertook the entire venture by themselves. During the project, Stewart's panache for restoring and decorating became apparent. In 1976, Stewart started a catering business in her basement with a friend from her modeling days, Norma Collier. The venture quickly became successful, but soured when Collier alleged that Stewart was difficult to work with, and was also taking catering jobs on the side. Stewart soon bought her portion of the business. Stewart was also hired as the manager of a gourmet food store, the Market Basket but after a disagreement with the owners at the mini-mall she was forced out and opened her own store. Andrew had become the president of prominent New York City publisher, Harry N. Abrams, Inc.. In 1977, he was responsible for releasing the English-language edition of ''The Secret Book of Gnomes'' series, by Dutch authors Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, which quickly became a blockbuster success and was on The New York Times Best Seller list. He contracted Stewart's company to cater the book release party, where Stewart was introduced to Alan Mirken, head of Crown Publishing Group.

Mirken was impressed by Stewart's talent and later contacted her to develop a cookbook, featuring recipes and photos from the parties that Stewart hosted. The result was her first book, ''Entertaining'' (December 13, 1982), ghostwritten by Elizabeth Hawes. From there, word of her skills and business grew and ''Entertaining'' became a New York Times Best Seller, and the best-selling cookbook since Julia Child and Simone Beck's ''Mastering the Art of French Cooking'', released two decades earlier.

Following ''Entertaining'''s success, Stewart released many more books under the Clarkson Potter publishing imprint, including ''Martha Stewart's Quick Cook'' (1983), ''Martha Stewart's Hors D'oeuvres'' (1984), ''Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts'' (1985), ''Weddings'' (1987), ''The Wedding Planner'' (1988), ''Martha Stewart's Quick Cook Menus'' (1988), and ''Martha Stewart's Christmas'' (1989), among others. During this time, she also authored dozens of newspaper columns, magazine articles and other pieces on homemaking, and made numerous television appearances on programs such as ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' and ''Larry King Live''. Andrew and Martha Stewart divorced in 1989.

Later career

In 1990, she also signed with Time Publishing Ventures to develop a new magazine, ''Martha Stewart Living'', for which Stewart would serve as editor in chief. The first issue was released in late 1990 with an initial rate base of 250,000. Circulation would peak in 2002 at more than 2 million copies per issue. In 1993, she began a weekly half-hour service program based on her magazine, which was quickly expanded to a full hour, and later to a daily format, with half-hour episodes on weekends. Stewart also became a frequent contributor to CBS's ''The Early Show'', and starred in several prime time holiday specials on the CBS network.

On the cover of the May 1995 issue, ''New York Magazine'' declared her as "the definitive American woman of our time".

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

In September 1997, Stewart, along with the assistance of business partner Sharon Patrick, was able to secure funding to purchase the various television, print, and merchandising ventures related to the Martha Stewart brand, and consolidate them into a new company, named Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. Stewart served as chairwoman, president, and CEO of the new company and Patrick became Chief Operations Officer. By organizing all of the brand's assets under one roof, Stewart felt she could promote synergy and have greater control of the brand's direction through the business's activities. That same month Stewart announced in ''Martha Stewart Living'' the launch of a companion website and a catalogue business, called Martha by Mail. The company also has a direct-to-consumer floral business.

On October 19, 1999, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia went public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol MSO. The initial public offering was set at $18 per share, and rallied to $38 by the end of trading, making Stewart a billionaire on paper. The stock price slowly went down to $16 per share by February 2002. Stewart was then and continues to be the majority shareholder, with a commanding 96% control of voting power in the company.

Stock trading case and conviction

According to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all 3,928 shares of her ImClone Systems stock on December 27, 2001, after receiving material, nonpublic information from Peter Bacanovic, who was Stewart's broker at Merrill Lynch. The day following her sale, the stock value fell 16%.

In the months that followed, Stewart drew heavy media scrutiny, including a ''Newsweek'' cover headlined "Martha's Mess". Notably, on June 25, 2002, CBS anchor Jane Clayson grilled Stewart on the air about ImClone during her regular segment on ''The Early Show''. Stewart continued chopping cabbage and famously quipped, "I just want to focus on my salad". On October 3, 2002, Stewart resigned her position, held for four months, on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange, following a deal prosecutors had made with Douglas Faneuil, an assistant to Bacanovic.

On June 4, 2003, Stewart was indicted by the government on nine counts, including charges of securities fraud and obstruction of justice. Stewart voluntarily stepped down as CEO and Chairwoman of MSLO, but stayed on as chief creative officer. She went on trial in January 2004. Prosecutors showed that Bacanovic had ordered his assistant to tell Stewart that the CEO of ImClone, Samuel D. Waksal, was selling all his shares in advance of an adverse Food and Drug Administration ruling. The FDA action was expected to cause ImClone shares to decline. After a highly publicized five-week jury trial that was the most closely watched of a wave of corporate fraud trials, Stewart was found guilty in March 2004 of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators, and was sentenced in July 2004 to serve a five month term in a federal correctional facility and a two year period of supervised release (to include five months of electronic monitoring).

Bacanovic and Waksal were also convicted of federal charges and sentenced to prison terms. Stewart also paid a fine of $30,000.

In August 2006, the SEC announced that it had agreed to settle the related civil case against Stewart. Under the settlement, Stewart agreed to a five-year bar from serving as a director, CEO, CFO, or any other officer role responsible for preparing, auditing, or disclosing financial results of any public company. In June 2008, the UK Border Agency refused to grant her a visa to enter the United Kingdom because of her criminal conviction for obstructing justice. She had been planning to speak at the Royal Academy on fashion and leisure industry matters.

Incarceration

Stewart wanted to go to prison in Connecticut or Florida. She did not want to serve at Federal Prison Camp, Alderson in West Virginia, due to its remote location; in 2004, her lawyer said that the remoteness would make it difficult for Stewart's then-90 year old mother to visit. Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum recommended to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that Stewart be given her first choice, Federal Correctional Institution, Danbury, or her second choice, Federal Correctional Complex, Coleman. However, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said that the BOP would not send her to FCI Danbury because the news media could too easily access the facility. The bureau could not send Stewart to FCC Coleman because of complications from Hurricane Ivan; the Coleman complex filled because inmates from Federal Correctional Institution, Marianna were moved to Coleman. Therefore, the Federal Bureau of Prisons assigned Stewart to Alderson. The spokesperson said that he was concerned that the assignment to Alderson could be perceived as being vindictive. Alexis Stewart said that she believed that the BOP "may have made a point of sending her far away".

Cedarbaum ordered Stewart to report to her prison sentence before 2 pm on October 8, 2004. By September 27, 2004, Stewart received the BOP ID 55170-054. At about 6:15 am on October 8, 2004, she reported to FPC Alderson. Stewart said that her prison nickname was "M. Diddy". While in confinement, she took a job and became an informal liaison between the administration and her fellow inmates. The ''People'' special, ''Scandals! That Rocked America'', stated "Some expected America's goddess of domestic perfection to fall into terminal despair. Instead, with the drive that would make her a billionaire, Stewart took her lemon of a sentence and made lemonade. Heck, she made a lemon soufflé." Stewart was released from FPC Alderson at 12:30 am on March 4, 2005. She was then placed in a two year term of supervised release; during five of those months, she was placed in home confinement with electronic monitoring. Stewart served her home confinement at her residence in Bedford, New York. After her home confinement ended, but while her supervised release continued, she was required to remain employed and required to not associate with people with criminal records. In addition, during the supervised release, she was required to receive permission from federal officials if she was going to leave the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Current projects

Following her release from prison in March 2005, Stewart launched a highly publicized comeback, and was once again involved in ''Martha Stewart Living''. Offerings of her company's Martha Stewart Everyday line at Kmart were expanded to include a new line of ready-made home furnishings, and its mass market interior paint line became available at the larger Sears stores. However, the most heavily promoted aspect of her comeback was in television. Stewart returned to daytime television with ''The Martha Stewart Show'' and appeared in an adapted version of ''The Apprentice'' (called ''The Apprentice: Martha Stewart''). Both shows premiered in September 2005, and both were produced by Mark Burnett. ''The Martha Stewart Show'' is currently in its sixth season.

Her prime time ''Apprentice'' spin-off received poor ratings, which some attribute to popular dislike for the opportunistic tone of the network's massive promotional campaign and to NBC's slotting the show up against the hit drama ''Lost''. ''The Apprentice: Martha Stewart'' was not renewed for a second season.

In October 2005, Stewart also released a new book called ''The Martha Rules'' on starting and managing a new business, and a month later her company released ''Martha Stewart Baking Handbook''. In October 2006, Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook, a reference book about looking after your house, was published by Clarkson Potter. She also is a regular contributor of cooking, gardening, and crafts segments on NBC's ''Today'' show. Stewart's daily talk show was nominated in six categories for the 33rd Daytime Emmy Awards in 2006, including Best Host and Best Show. MSLO launched a line of houses that carry her name to be built by KB Home, initially in Cary, North Carolina and various other locations nationwide. The first homes, which were inspired by Stewart's homes in New York and Mount Desert Island in Maine, were completed in early 2006. Ultimately 650 homes are planned with prices from low $200,000 to mid-$400,000s. A line of paper-based crafts for EK Success is also in development. In September 2007, she launched an upscale line of homewares for Macy's, which was the largest brand launch in Macy's history. Appearing in commercials for the line, Stewart stated she has designed more than 2,000 items exclusively for Macy's. The line includes bedding, bath, cookware and dinnerware. In addition to television and merchandising, MSLO launched a 24-hour satellite radio channel with Sirius in November 2005, on which Stewart currently hosts a weekly call-in show.

Stewart also made a special appearance on the comedy-drama series, ''Ugly Betty'', in the November 16, 2006 episode "Four Thanksgivings and a Funeral", in which she gave her friend Wilhelmina Slater (played by Vanessa Williams) tips on how to prepare a turkey. Justin Suarez (played by Mark Indelicato) is a fan of Stewart.

In July 2006, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced a multi-year agreement with FLOR, Inc., the eco-friendly manufacturer of high-style modular floor coverings, to manufacture and market a new line of Martha Stewart-branded carpet tiles. The Martha Stewart Floor Designs by FLOR line debuted in 2007 with the distinctive design and color palette associated with the Martha Stewart brand. The agreement with FLOR was part of the Martha Stewart organization's growing home furnishings program, which includes a wide range of products such as furniture with Bernhardt, wall color with Lowe's, and floor coverings with FLOR.

On September 14, 2007, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced that it inked a partnership with E & J Gallo Winery to produce a wine brand with label "''Martha Stewart Vintage''" (for sale in 6 cities, January, at $15). 15,000 cases to be sold include: 2006 Sonoma County Chardonnay, 2005 Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon and 2006 Sonoma County Merlot (for Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, North Carolina, Denver, Phoenix, and Portland, Oregon). Martha Stewart also signed a contract with Costco to offer frozen and fresh food (label - Kirkland Signature).

In July 2008, Craft items under the names "Martha Stewart Celebrate" and "Martha Stewart Create", two divisions of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, premiered in Wal-Mart stores. The deal came about in part due to the closing of more than 600 K-Mart stores in the U.S. In a move from broadcast television to cable, on January 26, 2010, Hallmark Channel and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia announced a multi-year strategic partnership. The award-winning, popular daytime series, "The Martha Stewart Show" would move to the Hallmark Channel in September 2010. Following the flagship program, Hallmark concluded it would air multi-hour blocks of exclusive MSLO developed programming. In 2011, she will have a new show titled "Martha Bakes" on the Hallmark Channel.

Personal life

At age 19, she married Andrew "Andy" Stewart, on July 1, 1961. She left Barnard College for a year after she married but later returned. Her daughter Alexis Stewart was born in 1965. In 1989, Martha and Andrew divorced. Stewart dated Sir Anthony Hopkins, but the relationship was short-lived since she decided to cut it short after seeing ''The Silence of the Lambs'', due to her being unable to avoid associating him with the character of Hannibal Lecter.

Stewart reportedly dated billionaire Charles Simonyi, who was an early employee of Microsoft and head of their software group, on-and-off for 15 years. She featured footage of him as a space tourist aboard Soyuz on her television show in 2007. They broke up around February 2008 and Simonyi, then age 60, suddenly married 28-year-old Lisa Persdotter on November 22, 2008. They are expecting a baby in early 2011.

Stewart is an avid animal lover. Her pets include champion show Chow Chow dogs, French Bulldogs, Himalayan cats, and Friesian horses, including her dark horse Rutger. Stewart also created a video on behalf of fur bearing animals after being approached by PETA while in jail. Stewart stated, "I used to wear real fur, but, like many others, I had a change of heart when I learned what actually happens to the animals".

Martha Kostyra, Stewart's mother, died at the age of 93 on November 16, 2007. Martha Kostyra, also called "Big Martha" by her family, had appeared on ''Martha Stewart Living'' numerous times.

Stewart currently resides in Katonah, New York, a hamlet of Bedford, New York. She also maintains a residence on Mount Desert Island in Seal Harbor, Maine, known as 'Skylands', the former summer estate of automobile designer and tycoon, Edsel Ford, with gardens designed by renowned landscape architect Jens Jensen (1922).

See also

''Martha'' (TV series)

''Martha Stewart Living''

''Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart'', 2003 NBC TV movie

''Martha: Behind Bars'', 2005 TV movie

Further reading

References

External links

The Martha Blog - Martha Stewart's Official Blog

Martha Stewart on Twitter

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:American entertainment industry businesspeople Category:American people of Polish descent Category:American television personalities Category:American women in business Category:Barnard College alumni Category:Beekeepers Category:Connecticut Democrats Category:Daytime Emmy Award winners Category:American magazine founders Category:American magazine publishers (people) Category:Participants in American reality television series Category:People convicted of obstruction of justice Category:People from Jersey City, New Jersey Category:People from Nutley, New Jersey Category:People from Westchester County, New York Category:People from Westport, Connecticut Category:Financial scandals Category:21st-century American criminals Category:American white-collar criminals

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Conflict	Iroquois Wars
Date	mid 17th century
Place	Northern New York
Result	French victory
Combatant1
Combatant2
Casualties2	}}

First Invasion

In January 1666, the French invaded the Iroquois homeland in present-day New York. The first invasion force was led by Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle. His men were greatly outnumbered by the Iroquois and were forced to withdraw before any significant action could take place. Although the invasion was abortive, they took Chief Canaqueese prisoner.

Second Invasion

The second invasion force was led by the aristocrat Alexandre de Prouville the "Marquis de Tracy" and viceroy of New France. From his base in Quebec City, as Lieutenant General of the Carignan-Salières Regiment, he initiated a brutal war against the Iroquois peoples. After defeating them and destroying their crops and villages, he launched an attack against the Mohawk nation and causing destruction to their territory. Marquis Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy seized all the Mohawk lands in the name of the king of France, and forced the Mohawks to accept the Roman Catholic faith and to adopt the French language as taught by the Jesuit missionaries. With their immediate European support cut off, the Iroquois sued for peace, to which France agreed.

References

External links

Timeline of the Iroquois Wars (1533-1650)

Category:17th-century conflicts Category:New France Category:Military history of Canada Category:Wars involving the indigenous peoples of North America Category:Fur trade Category:Native American history of New York Category:First Nations history in Quebec

name	Ray Mears
birth date	February 07, 1964
birth place	Kenley, London
known for	Bushcraft and survival techniques
occupation	Television presenter and author
nationality	British
children	}}

Raymond Paul "Ray" Mears (born 7 February 1964) is an English woodsman, instructor, author and TV presenter. His TV appearances cover bushcraft and survival techniques, and he is best known for the TV series ''Ray Mears' Bushcraft'', ''Ray Mears' World of Survival'', ''Extreme Survival'', ''Survival with Ray Mears'', ''Wild Britain with Ray Mears'' and ''Ray Mears Goes Walkabout''.

Early life

Mears grew up in Kenley, Greater London, and the North Downs, where he discovered a countryside abundant with wildlife. Educated at Reigate Grammar School, a co-educational independent school in Reigate, Surrey, he learned to track foxes in the forest at a young age. As a boy, he desired to sleep out on the trail, but unable to afford camping equipment, he resorted to setting up camp using what he could find in his surroundings.

Interests

Mears's enthusiasm for his subject, combined with his broad knowledge of survival and the uses which may be made of plants, trees and other natural materials found in woodland, forest or desert, have made him a popular figure in TV broadcasting in the UK. He has travelled extensively across the world for his TV series and has learned survival techniques from the indigenous peoples he has met. In his programmes he demonstrates his knowledge of the wild, how to find food from seeds, berries, roots and other growing things, and how to survive by constructing temporary shelters, fires and canoes from natural materials.

Mears is particularly interested in the survival of groups of resistance fighters and partisans for extended periods during the Second World War, such as the Norwegian heavy water plant saboteurs (see ''The Real Heroes of Telemark'') and the Bielski brothers in Belarus (see ''Extreme Survival'').

Personal life

Mears met his long term partner, Rachel, in 1992 when she attended one of his five day survival courses. The couple lived in East Sussex with her two adult children, and married in 2005, after Rachel was diagnosed with breast cancer. Rachel died from cancer in 2006, aged 50, and her ashes are scattered in the Ashdown forest near their home.

In 2005, Mears was a passenger in a serious helicopter accident while filming a documentary in Wyoming. The helicopter in which he was travelling with his camera crew struck the ground during a steep low level turn, and broke apart, rolling to a stop. The fuel tank was ruptured in the accident, and escaping fuel covered Mears and the crew. No fire occurred, and Mears was able to escape the wreckage and assist in the rescue and first aid of one of the crew who was badly injured. Mears escaped uninjured.

Non-television work

Mears started his bushcraft company aged 19. Mears' first book, ''The Survival Handbook'', was published in 1990. Mears has continued to publish books, both standalone works, and as accompaniments to his TV series.

In September 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University, and in the same year he began to deliver public lectures across the United Kingdom on his experiences in front of and behind the lens.

In July 2010, Mears was asked by Northumbria Police to help them track fugitive killer Raoul Moat, after he fled his temporary tent-based shelter in the village of Rothbury.

Television

Mears has made a number of series for BBC television, visiting various parts of the world and covering such topics as bushcraft and survival skills, the traditional culture of indigenous peoples, and the achievements of noted explorers.

In 2009 he was approached by ITV to present a planned revival of its long-running nature documentary series ''Survival''. The resulting three-part series was rebranded ''Survival with Ray Mears'' and broadcast on ITV1 in 2010. Each episode followed Mears as he used his tracking skills to locate bears, wolves and leopards. In a ''Radio Times'' interview to promote the series, Mears complained of being typecast by the BBC. This series was followed by ''Wild Britain with Ray Mears'', also broadcast by ITV.

Series

''Wild Tracks'' (BBC, 1994)

''Tracks'' (BBC, 1994–97)

''Ray Mears' World of Survival'' (BBC, 1997–98, 2 seasons of 6 episodes each)

''Ray Mears' Country Tracks'' (BBC, 1998, 2002–03)

''The Essential Guide to Rocks'' (BBC Education, 1998)

''Ray Mears' Extreme Survival'' (BBC, 1999–2002, 3 seasons of 6 episodes each)

''Ray Mears' Adventure Special'' (BBC, 2001) – Mears takes Ewan McGregor into the Honduran jungle on the trail of the prehistoric people of the Mosquito Coast.

''Ray Mears' Real Heroes of Telemark'' (BBC, 2003)

''Ray Mears' Bushcraft'' (BBC, 2004–05, 2 seasons of 5 episodes each)

''Ray Mears' Wild Food'' (BBC, 2007, 5 episodes)

''Ray Mears Goes Walkabout'' (BBC, June 2008, 4 episodes) – Mears tours the Australian outback. An accompanying hardcover book was published in the UK by Hodder and Stoughton in March 2008. In the series Mears meets one of his heroes: Les Hiddins (aka "The Bush Tucker Man").

''Ray Mears' Northern Wilderness'' (BBC Two, Autumn 2009, 6 episodes) – Mears follows in the footsteps of pioneers who opened up Canada, such as Samuel Hearne, John Rae and David Thompson.

''Survival with Ray Mears'' (ITV, Spring 2010, 3 episodes)

''Wild Britain with Ray Mears'' (ITV, Autumn 2010, 6 episodes) - To be followed in 2011 by extended 60 minute episodes with exclusive additional content to be broadcast on UKTV's natural history channel Eden.

Books

''The Survival Handbook'' (1990)

''The Outdoor Survival Handbook'' (1992)

''Ray Mears' World of Survival'' (1997)

''Bushcraft'' (2002)

''Essential Bushcraft'' (2003)

''The Real Heroes of Telemark: The True Story of the Secret Mission to Stop Hitler's Atomic Bomb'' (2003)

''Ray Mears' Bushcraft Survival'' (2005)

''Wild Food by Ray Mears & Professor Gordon Hillman'' (2007)

''Ray Mears Goes Walkabout'' (2008)

''Vanishing World - A Life of Bushcraft'' (2008)

''Northern Wilderness'' (2009)

Quotations

Quotations by Ray Mears include:

''"Bushcraft is what you carry in your mind and your muscles."''

''"The great thing about bushcraft is that wherever you go, the skills go with you."''

''"One of the great things about bushcraft is that skills you learn in your back garden can be used all over the world."''

''"Knowledge is the key to survival and the best thing about that is: it doesn't weigh anything."''

''"You cannot underestimate the importance of preparation."''

''"As far as I'm concerned, these people are just showmen."'' On Bear Grylls

See also

Les Hiddins aka Bushtucker Man

Mors Kochanski

Lofty Wiseman

Richard Proenneke

Les Stroud - in Survivorman

Bear Grylls

Rüdiger Nehberg (''Sir Vival'')

Bruce Parry British anthropologist

Lars Monsen Norwegian adventurer and journalist

References

External links

Ray Mears' own web site

Ray Mears on MySpace

Ray Mears @ IMDb

Ray Mears' Survival shows on Dave (UKTV)

Photographs of 2005 helicopter accident

itvWILD">Wild Britain on itvWILD

Ray Mears Woodlore Facebook page

Ray Mears Bushcraft Official Youtube page

Category:British television presenters Category:British writers Category:1964 births Category:Living people Category:Old Reigatians Category:People from Kenley Category:Survivalists

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