Vol. 47 No. 1 (1999)
Research Article

Cannibalizing the Donner Name

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  • Christine De Vinne
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1999.47.1.51

Published 1999-03-01

Copyright (c) 1999 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

For nineteenth-century American audiences, the name of the Donner Party evoked grisly images of cannibalism on the western frontier. Those same audiences eagerly consumed every artifact to which the party's name could be attached and, in turn, renamed the scene of the 1846-47 winter encampment in its honor. The transformation of the Donner label is traced from individual name to toponymic feature and article of exchange on the open market, with particular attention to the ways in which the party's common identity as “Donners” overwrote the histories of individual party members.

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