Rasmuson Library Historical Translation Series, vol. XV
This volume makes available for the first time in English a variety of primary source materials relating to the life and work of Natalia Shelikhova, a pioneering eighteenth and nineteenth-century Russian American businesswoman. As a principal of the Russian-American Company, Shelikhova worked in Alaska, and her business acumen and wide-ranging connections- including the empress of Russia and a swathe of northern leaders- were crucial to the growth of Alaska's economy, as well as to the welfare of the Native people, in whose life and culture she took a strong interest. The letters, petitions, and personal documents presented here will be indispensable for the students of Alaska and eighteenth nineteenth-century women's history.