Keith Matthews Prize 2023 Announcement

McGill-Queen’s is thrilled to announce that May We Be Spared To Meet On Earth by Russel A. Potter, Regina Koellner, Peter Carney, & Mary Williamson has won The Canadian Nautical Research Society 2023 Keith Matthews Prize.

“This is an exceptional collection of letters, offered complete, with exhaustive endnotes for most, explaining terms, expanding on the subject matter, adding details concerning the sender or receiver and tying letters to other letters in this collection and/or other archives. The opening essay is an excellent synopsis of the present historiography of the Franklin Expedition and the numerous efforts to find them. It details the twists and turns in telling the story from the disappearance up to present day. Touching on historical and fictional accounts the essay reminds the reader of the cultural impact the story of this misadventure has had. May We Be Spared To Meet On Earth, is an essential source for future historians and other writers, exploring the Franklin Expedition.” The Canadian Nautical Research Society 2023 Keith Matthews Prize jury

Russell Potter in Disko Bay off the coast of Greenland, the very place from which the very last letters from Franklin and his men were sent home in July of 1845, a little over 178 years ago. Potter is on his first leg of a voyage through the Northwest Passage, aboard the ship L’Austral, where he’s working as their shipboard historian!