On This Day
1788 – Russian explorer Gerasim Izmailov reaches Alaska.
Gerasim Grigoryevich Izmaylov (Russian: Герасим Григорьевич Измайлов; circa 1745 – after 1795) was a Russian navigator involved in the Russian colonization of the Americas and in the establishment of the colonies of Russian America in Alaska. He was responsible for the first detailed maps of the Aleutian Islands.
A native of Yakutsk, Izmaylov attended a navigation school in Okhotsk with Dmitry Bocharov, who became his lifelong business companion. In 1771, both were caught up in the Benyovszky mutiny at Bolsheretsk on Kamchatka. Izmaylov attempted to break away from the mutineers but, after being flogged, was marooned on the isle of Simushir, one of the uninhabited Kuril Islands. For a year he subsisted on “scallops, grass, and roots” before being rescued by yasak gatherers. He was investigated in Irkutsk on account of his association with Benyovszky, but was eventually cleared of all charges in 1774.
In 1775, Izmaylov assumed command of the boat St. Paul and set to work mapping the shores of the Aleutian Islands. On October 1778, while visiting Unalaska, he made the acquaintance of Captain James Cook who presented him with an octant in exchange for a letter of introduction to the Kamchatka authorities. Cook also handed over to Izmaylov a recently drawn map of the western coast of North America, which was to be delivered by the Russians to the British Admiralty.
In 1783-1785, Izmaylov and Grigory Shelikhov made their historic voyage from Okhotsk to Kodiak Island, where they founded the first Russian settlement in America. In 1789, Izmaylov became the first to explore and map the Kenai Peninsula. Three years later, he took up employment under Alexander Baranov, helping him withstand a sea attack by the Tlingit.
Having wintered in Unalaska, Izmaylov visited Saint Paul Island, where he discovered the crew of a Russian ship that had been missing since 1791. He brought them back to Okhotsk in June 1794. He is mentioned for the last time in 1795, when he accompanied to Alaska a group of Orthodox missionaries under Father Joasaph.
Born On This Day
1909 – Natascha Artin Brunswick, German-American mathematician and photographer (d. 2003)
St. Petersburg and Hamburg
Natascha Artin Brunswick was the daughter of Naum Jasny [ru], a Russian Jewish economist from Kharkiv. Her mother was a Russian orthodox aristocrat and dentist. Since at the time Russian orthodox Christians were prohibited from marrying Jews, she converted to Protestantism. They were married in Finland.
Naum Jasny was an adherent of the Mensheviks and fled to Tbilisi after the October Revolution in 1917. Natascha, her sister, and her mother followed in 1920. After the Bolsheviks took control of Georgia, the family lived in Austria from 1922 to 1924, for a brief period in 1924 in Berlin, and finally moved to Langenhorn, Hamburg, where they remained until 1937. Natascha Jasny attended the progressive Lichtwark school. While still in school, she photographed with a simple box camera and processed her own pictures in the bathroom at home, which served as a makeshift darkroom.
Natascha graduated in 1928. She hoped to study architecture at the Bauhaus Dessau, but the family’s financial situation made this impossible. She instead studied mathematics at the University of Hamburg, where she also took courses in art history from Aby Warburg and Erwin Panofsky. She graduated from the university in 1930 with a Magister degree.
On August 29, 1929 she married her mathematics professor Emil Artin, who had been teaching in Hamburg since 1923. In 1933, the Artins had a daughter, Karin, and in 1934 a son, Michael.
Because his wife was half Jewish, Emil Artin was forced into early retirement from his teaching position under the Nazi Party Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service. On September 27, 1934, Artin already had to sign a declaration that his wife was not “Aryan”.[1] The Artin family managed to leave Germany for the United States on October 21, 1937. Since they were prohibited from taking larger sums of money with them, the Artins shipped their entire household, which reflected their modernist sensibilities.
FYI
1 of 6 Fireside Books presents Shelf Awareness for Readers for Friday, June 11, 2021
By Colin Marshall, Open Culture: Sci-Fi “Portal” Connects Citizens of Lublin & Vilnius, Allowing Passersby Separated by 376 Miles to Interact in Real Time
By Kriston Capps, Bloomberg City Lab: In New Orleans, the Shotgun House Goes a Long Way Back Built to beat the heat, these distinctive elongated homes are a fixture of the Crescent City, and beyond.
By Fahad Sperinck, Tedium: Slackers vs. Strivers How a pair of books with dramatically diverging philosophies came out in the same year—and fittingly, the more upright one became better known.
By Michaeleen Doucleff, Jane Greenhalgh, NPR, Goats and Soda: How Inuit Parents Teach Kids To Control Their Anger
Michaeleen Doucleff: How Inuit Parents Teach Kids To Control Their Anger
The Officer Tatum: Daunte Wright’s VICTIMS SUE HIS FAMILY FOR DAMAGES BEFORE HIS DEATH
Fox News: Mom who survived Mao’s cultural revolution rips school for critical race theory
Xi Van Fleet joins ‘Hannity’ to tell her story
Recipes
By Betty Crocker Kitchens: Homemade Scones Better Than the Coffee Shop’s
By Danilo Alfaro, The Spruce Eats: Red and White Sauce Lasagna
Pastry chef Sasha Piligian, Food & Wine: Lemon Chiffon Cake with Blueberry-Coriander Buttercream
By Betty Crocker Kitchens: Ice Cream in a Bag
RecipeTinEats
- Introducing Jaffle! June 10, 2026Meet Jaffle! Future Chief Taste Tester. Son of a Dozer friend. A little bundle of golden, fluffy joy! 48 hours of instant happiness I didn’t expect to get a new puppy so soon after saying goodbye to Dozer. To be honest, I wasn’t sure when I’d be ready. And I had it in my head... […]Nagi
- Vegetable Tian June 5, 2026Meet Vegetable Tian – a colourful Provençal vegetable bake that I absolutely love! It’s full of beautiful colours, Mediterranean vibes, and looks as good as it tastes. Serve it as a side dish or enjoy it as a vegetarian main. Let’s go! Vegetable Tian I’ve been a ratatouille guy for as long as I can... […]Chef JB (RecipeTin)
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 11 June 11, 2026Picture of the day Panorama of Hong Kong's harbour and skyline, as seen from Victoria Peak on a rainy night of June 11, 2019.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for June 10 June 10, 2026Picture of the day Hills of České Středohoří (Central Bohemian Highlands): Malý Křižák, Křižák, Brník, Srdov, Milá
E-book Deals:
The Book Junction: Where Readers Go To Discover Great New Fiction!
Mystery & Thriller Most Wanted
Book Blogs & Websites:
Welcome to the Stump the Bookseller blog!
Stump the Bookseller is a service offered by Loganberry Books to reconnect people to the books they love but can’t quite remember. In brief (for more detailed information see our About page), people can post their memories here, and the hivemind goes to work. After all, the collective mind of bibliophiles, readers, parents and librarians around the world is much better than just a few of us thinking. Together with these wonderful Stumper Magicians, we have a nearly 50% success rate in finding these long lost but treasured books. The more concrete the book description, the better the success rate, of course. It is a labor of love to keep it going, and there is a modest fee. Please see the How To page to find price information and details on how to submit your Book Stumper and payment.
Thanks to everyone involved to keep this forum going: our blogging team, the well-read Stumper Magicians, the many referrals, and of course to everyone who fondly remembers the wonder of books from their childhood and wants to share or revisit that wonder. Isn’t it amazing, the magic of a book?