Dictionary (WHMI 61) - National Parks Gallery

Captain John Sutter (1803-1880) presented this French-English dictionary to Reverend Elkanah Walker (1805-1877) in 1838. Walker was also a missionary with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and helped establish the Tshimakain Mission among the Spokane tribe.

Mrs. Mary Walker (1811-1897), wife of Elkanah Walker, wrote the inside inscription which reads: “Who crossed the plains with our party in 1838. He gave us this book as a parting memo when we parted at Dr. Marcus Whitman’s mission among the Cayuses in Oregon. He afterwards settled in Sacramento, Cal. & was the first to discover gold in Cal. in 1838. He died in June, 1880. His funeral was in Washington, D.C. M.R.W.”

Catalog Number: WHMI 61
Object Name: Dictionary
Medium: paper
Date: 1829
Dimensions: width 22.5, height 13.0, thickness 4.0 cm