Jeannette Mirsky Ginsburg (September 3, 1903 – March 10, 1987) was an American writer who was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947 for her biographical writings on the history of exploration.
Early life and education Jeannette R. Mirsky was born in Bradley Beach, New Jersey and raised in New York City, the daughter of Michael David Mirsky and Frieda Ettleson Mirsky. Her father was in the garment business. Her brother was Alfred Mirsky (1900–1974), a cell biologist involved in the discovery of DNA.Seymour S. Cohen, "Alfred Ezra Mirsky" Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 73(1998): 322. She was a student at the Ethical Culture School, class of 1921. She attended Barnard College, graduating in 1924.Edwin McDowell, "Jeannette M. Ginsburg, 83, Author and Editor", The New York Times (March 20, 1987). She did graduate work in anthropology at Columbia University with Franz Boas and Margaret Mead. She was later awarded an honorary doctorate from Columbia University.Heather Lember, Guide to the Jeannette Mirsky Papers Barnard Archives and Special Collections.
She moved to Princeton, New Jersey in 1950.
Career Mirsky traveled extensively to access rare papers, maps, and artifacts related to her research."Author of Book on Arctic Never Has Been There" Bismarck Tribune (April 1, 1948): 9. via Newspapers.com She won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947,Jeannette Mirsky, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellows directory. as well as a Rockefeller Foundation grant and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities."The Faculty" Princeton Alumni Weekly (February 12, 1974). She wrote the entry on "Polar Exploration" for the Encyclopedia Americana (1956). Because of her interest in the far north, she was invited to give the keynote lecture at Alaska's Festival of the Arts in 1966."Distinguished Visitor" Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (April 7, 1966): 1. via Newspapers.com
Works by Jeannette Mirsky To the North: The Story of Arctic Exploration from the Earliest Times to the Present (1934; later republished as To the Arctic!)Jeannette Mirsky, To the Arctic: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times to the Present (University of Chicago Press 1998). Elisha Kent Kane and the Seafaring Frontier The Westward Crossings (Balboa, Mackenzie, Lewis & Clark) (US ed. 1946; UK ed. 1951)Jeannette Mirsky, The Westward Crossings: Balboa, Mackenzie, Lewis and Clark (Knopf 1946). Balboa: Discoverer of the Pacific (1964)Jeannette Mirsky, Balboa: Discoverer of the Pacific (Harper and Row 1964). Houses of God (1966)Jeannette Mirsky, Houses of God (Viking Press 1965). The Gentle Conquistadors (1972)Jeannette Mirsky, The Gentle Conquistadors: The Ten Year Odyssey Across the American Southwest of Three Spanish Captains and Esteban, a Black Slave (Kaye & Ward 1972). Sir Aurel Stein, Archaeological Explorer (1977)Jeannette Mirsky, Sir Aurel Stein, Archaeological Explorer (University of Chicago Press 1998). The World of Eli Whitney (with Allan Nevins) The Great Chinese Travelers: An Anthology (1974, edited and wrote introduction)Jeannette Mirsky, The Great Chinese Travelers: An Anthology (University of Chicago Press 1974).
Personal life Jeannette Mirsky married engineer Edward Bellamy Ginsburg in 1941."Edward Bellamy Ginsburg," Report of the Harvard Class of 1920 (Harvard University 1945): 287. The couple moved to South Carolina for Edward's work, and then to Princeton, New Jersey in 1950. She was widowed in 1959, and died in 1987, at age 83, in Princeton. Her papers are archived at Barnard College.
References
External links Northern Chronicle Manuscript at Dartmouth College Library