Dorothy Stimson Bullitt was born in Seattle on February 5, 1892 to C.D. Stimson and Harriet Overton Stimson. In 1932 Dorothy took over the family’s business dealings while increasingly becoming involved in civic matters and the arts, purchasing a radio and television station in the 1940s. She died in 1989. The books in the Dorothy Bullitt Collection on Cook and Vancouver Expeditions contain Harriet Stimson’s book plate, and were presumably inherited from her mother.

Although Captains Cook and Vancouver acquired greater fame, much of the groundwork for late eighteenth century exploration was laid by other British naval officers including Captains John Bryon (1723-1786), Philip Carteret (circa 1738-1796) and Samuel Wallis (1728-1795), who circumnavigated the globe in the 1760s.

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) commanded three British voyages. The first, beginning in 1768, was to look for a southern continent and the second journey, (1772-1775), took him to Antarctica. On his third expedition, beginning in 1776, Cook sought in vain for a "northwest passage” from Asia to Europe, and in doing so charted the coastline from Vancouver Island to the Bering Strait.

British naval officer John Meares (circa 1756-1809) became a captain in the merchant service in 1783. As founder of the Northwest American Company in India, he made two trips to the Pacific Northwest with the intention of initiating fur trade. On Meares’ second journey in 1788 he established a trading post in Nootka which was seized the following year by the Spanish.

Nathaniel Portlock (circa 1748-1817) was a member of Cook’s third voyage on the Discovery and in 1779 transferred to the Resolution with Vancouver. In 1785 he led an expedition to the Pacific Northwest organized by the King George’s Sound Company to establish a fur trade in the North Pacific. Captain George Dixon, also a member of Cook’s third voyage, accompanied Portlock on his 1785 expedition to the Pacific Northwest.

Captain George Vancouver (1757-1798) was a member of Cook’s second voyage and was also aboard the Discovery, which accompanied the Resolution on Cook’s third voyage. In 1791 Vancouver was given command of the ship the Discovery (named in honor of Cook) to chart the Pacific Northwest coast and to help resolve the crisis precipitated by John Meares at Nootka. He remained on the coast or in the Sandwich Islands for three seasons until he sailed back to England 1795.

Related Materials:
The Guide to the Dorothy Stimson Bullitt papers can be found at the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections in Seattle.

References:
Dorothy Bullitt:
History Link, http://www.historylink.org/essays/output.cfm?file_id=677.
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/findaids/docs/papersrecords/BullittDorothyStimson5269.xml#a1.

James Cook, George Vancouver, John Meares, Nathaniel Portlock, and George Dixon:
BC Bookworld Author Bank, http://www.abcbookworld.com.

John Byron and Philip Carteret:
National Maritime Museum, http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conWebDoc.591/viewPage/2.

Samuel Wallis:
Cornwall – Famous Cornish People, http://www.cornwall-calling.co.uk/famous-cornish-people/wallis-samuel.htm.