author
Reuben Gold Thwaites
1853–1913
A pioneering librarian and historian, he helped bring early North American exploration and frontier history to a wide audience. His lively editorial work preserved major source collections that still matter to readers and researchers today.
5 Audiobooks
Afloat on the Ohio : an historical pilgrimage of a thousand miles in a skiff, from Redstone to Cairo
by Reuben Gold Thwaites
Historic Waterways—Six Hundred Miles of Canoeing Down the Rock, Fox, and Wisconsin Rivers
by Reuben Gold Thwaites
Daniel Boone
by Reuben Gold Thwaites
The Colonies, 1492-1750
by Reuben Gold Thwaites
Stories of the Badger State
by Reuben Gold Thwaites
About the author
Born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on May 15, 1853, and raised in Wisconsin from his teens, Reuben Gold Thwaites built his career through journalism, teaching, and wide-ranging self-education. He worked as a reporter and editor before moving into historical and library work in Madison.
Thwaites is best remembered for his long leadership at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, where he succeeded Lyman C. Draper and greatly expanded the society's publications, collections, and public reach. He also served as president of the American Library Association, reflecting his influence beyond Wisconsin.
As a writer and editor, he played a major role in preserving and popularizing early American history. His editions of The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents and the journals of Lewis and Clark helped make important firsthand records more accessible, and his own books on Wisconsin, the colonies, and French America introduced general readers to the history of the continent's borderlands and explorers.