JCU Library Guide - Captain James Cook

Internet Resources | Library Resources | Just the Facts | Journal Articles

Captain James Cook (1728-1779) Celebrated North Country Navigator Captain James Cook was born in 1728 in Marton, and is probably the most famous maritime explorer of the 18th century. His exploits in Canada and the North West America, the islands of the Pacific, New Zealand and Australia and his incursions into waters of the Arctic and Antarctic are well recorded, particularly through journals, logs and pictures which were made during the voyages and today preserved in museums, libraries and archives throughout the world.

Internet Resources

Discover the story of Captain James Cook through the collections of The British Library. The site provides substantial information about his life including a timeline, a photo gallery divided into 6 historical periods, a complete family tree and further links to sites such as the Captain Cook Society, the National Maritime Museum and the Captain Cook Memorial Museum.

	James Cook (part of the Discoverers web) provides links to numerous links to websites dealing with many aspects of Cook's life and voyages.
	South Seas: Voyaging and Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Pacific (1760-1800) is a comprehensive resource for James Cook’s first voyage of discovery of 1768-1771. It includes the full text of Cook’s Endeavour Journal, together with related books and journals and explanatory material.
	Information on the Endeavour voyage and journals can also be found at Treasures from The National Library, and The Endeavour Projects - a hypermedia edition of the Journals of James Cook's first Pacific voyage focussing on Tahiti, between 13 April and 6 July 1769.
	If you are interested in reading Captain Cook's Journal During the First Voyage Round the World or the biography The Life of James Cook by Arthur Kitson, go to the Project Guthenburg Australian explorers web-pages to access both books online in full text.
	You can also read the transcript of the ‘secret instructions’ given to James Cook by the British Admiralty before he set sail on the Endeavour.
	The James Cook University, Centre for Astronomy, provides a description of the astronomical observations performed during James Cook's voyages and provides references to further writings on those observations.

More Internet Resources

More hand-picked web sites can be found via the Open Directory and the Yahoo Directory.

You can find hundreds of other webpages mentioning Captain Cook via this Google search.

And Lost in Space Interactive - our real time, online interactive tutorial - uses "James Cook" to make you into an expert WWW searcher

Web sites are the easiest route to information, but they are rarely the best route. The highest quality information is usually found in Library Resources such as books and journal articles.

Library Resources

The James Cook University Library holds many books on the life and journeys of Captain James Cook. Some of these are listed below; for details of additional titles on James Cook search the library catalogue Tropicat.

The life of Captain James Cook

Hooker, J., Yeldham, P. (1987) Captain James Cook. Ringwood, Vic.: Penguin.
820A HOO 1C CAP

Beaglehole, J. C. (1974) The life of Captain James Cook. London: A. and C. Black
910.45092 COO/BEA

Mitchell Library (N.S.W.) (1968) Bibliography of Captain James Cook, R.N., F.R.S., circumnavigator. New York: B. Franklin.
910.45092 COO/NEW

Journals by Captain James Cook and his men

Cook, J., Reed, A. H. & Reed, A. W. (1969) Captain Cook in New Zealand : extracts from the journals of Captain James Cook, giving a full account in his own words of his adventures and discoveries in New Zealand. Wellington: Reed.
993.101 COO

Cook, J., Wharton, Sir W. J. L. (1968) Captain Cook's journal during his first voyage round the world, made in H. M. Bark 'Endeavour', 1768-71 : a literal transcription of the original mss ; with notes and introd. ed. by Captain W. J. L. Warton. Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia.
910.41 COO

Maps and charts

Robson, J. (2000) Captain Cook's world : maps of the life and voyages of James Cook R. N. Milsons Point, N.S.W.: Random House Australia.
910.92 COO/ROB

David, A., Joppien, R. & Smith B. (1988-1997) The charts & costal views of Captain Cook's voyages. London : Hakluyt Society in association with the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
910.4 HAK T3

Artifacts, artistic work etc.

Mira, W. J. D. (1970) James Cook, his coins & medals : some contemporary numismatic aspects of the life and voyages of Captain James Cook. [Cronulla, N.S.W.]: Australian Numismatic Society.
737.2 MIR

Captain Cook : his artists; his voyages : the Daily Telegraph portfolio of original works by artists who sailed with Captain Cook. (1970) Sydney: Australian Consolidated Pr.
910.45022 CAP

Murray-Oliver, A. (1969) Captain Cook's artists in the Pacific, 1769-1779. Wellington: Avon Fine Prints.
910.45 MUR T2

Juvenile literature

Blackwood, A., Hook, R. (1986) Captain Cook. Howe: Wayland.
910.92 BLA (Curriculum)

Stewart, D. (2001) Captain Cook's Endeavour : resource material for teachers. Sydney: Australian National Maritime Museum.
10.45 STE (Curriculum)

Videos

McDonald, P., Wainburranga, P. F. (1988) Too many Captain Cooks. Canberra A.C.T.: Ronin Films.
994.0049915 TOO (Video)

Captain Cook: Just the facts

Encyclopaedias provide the most reliable first stop for basic facts on Captain Cook.

This Encarta article is freely available to everyone.

If you are a member of JCU, you can find out about Captain Cook in the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online and in our xrefer online collection of encyclopaedias and dictionaries (off campus users may need to activate Remote Access and then return to this page).

Journal Articles on Captain Cook

If you are a member of JCU, you can view journal articles on Captain Cook in our Expanded Academic and ProQuest collections (off campus users may need to activate Remote Access and then return to this page)

 

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