An Arctic Boat Journey, in the Autumn of 1854

Hayes, Isaac I. New Edition. Boston: James R. Osgood, 1871.
  • 1854 US North Pole Mission of Charles Francis Hall.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Hayes participated in Charles Hall’s 1854 attempt to reach the North Pole, and contributed a couple of versions of his account before completing this 1860 version, closely following publication of Hayes’s The Open Polar Sea.

Diary.

Bender, Jacob (George Layerzapf). Transcribed diary appearing on www.arcticwebsite.com/GreelyBenderDiary. July 7, 1881-Feb. 19, 1882.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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July 191881: …we loaded some stores left here by the U.S. Gullnare last year. [Could easily have included books from the Howgate Expedition, those so stamped in the Arctic Collection found by Peary in 1898.]

The Open Polar Sea: A Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery towards the North Pole, in the Schooner “United States.”

Hayes, Isaac I. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867.
  • 1860-61 US North Pole Expedition (aboard United States, commanded by Isaac Hayes).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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The Open Polar Sea was a prominent but false theory of the nineteenth century that as one approached the highest latitudes the ice would give way to an open sea fed by warm currents which would reach as far as the poles.

Pictures of Arctic Travel. Greenland.

Hayes, Isaac I. New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1881.
  • 1860-61 US North Pole Expedition (aboard United States, commanded by Isaac Hayes).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Hayes short book consists of three prose pictures: The Doctor; The Savage; Snow and Ice.

The Gateways to the Pole,

[Maury, J. B.]. Putnam’s Magazine N.s. IV No. 23 (Nov. 1869) 521-537; “The Dumb Guides to the Pole” N.s. IV No. 24 (Dec. 1869) 727-40.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An extended and approving study of Silas Bent’s theories of the open polar sea and thermal currents, saying that previous explorers have ignored the natural paths of warm currents & that Bent’s purpose is the humane one of saving lives in fruitless attempts on the North Pole.

Scientific Observations of Dr. I. I. Hayes’ Arctic Expedition of 1860-61.

Schott, Charles A. Port Foulke Observatory, Sept 9 1860. Library of Congress. Miscellaneous Manuscript Collections. Nine notebooks labeled 2108.
  • 1860-61 US North Pole Expedition (aboard United States, commanded by Isaac Hayes).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Schott, who worked for the Coast and Geodetic Survey, appears to have done the analysis of Hayes’ data in 1865. At end of Part I, the “Computation of the Astronomical Observations” is a draft letter from Schott to Hayes (Feb. 13, 1865) about their publication.

The Arctic Regions: Illustrated with Photographs Taken on an Art Expedition to Greenland.

Bradford, William. Michael Lapides, Editor. Boston, MA: David R. Godine, in association with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, 2013.
  • 1869 US Greenland Expedition of William Bradford (aboard Panther).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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The narrative of Bradford’s 1869 original is all but unreadable in its original elephant folio format. This version offers a readable Bradford at last, with reduced text format and all the illustrations. The text is a fairly straightforward account of the Greenland voyage, with some good coverage of the natives encountered and especially of the Danish hospitality in several outports. Bradford proudly says at the outset that his ship, the Panther, was a temperance ship for all crew and passengers.

Narrative of the North Polar Expedition. U.S. Ship Polaris, Captain Charles Francis Hall Commanding.

Davis, Charles H. Edited under the Directtion of Hon. G. M. Robeson... by Rear-Admiral C. H. Davis, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1876.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Here is the official report of the Expedition, prepared from the journals of the officers and men, including the incidents of George Tyson’s ice-floe party. William Barr, in his 2016 edition of Bessel’s journal, refers to this as a “sugar-coated” account of the expedition.

Fatal North: Adventure and Survival Aboard USS

Henderson, Bruce. Polaris, the First U.S. Expedition to the North Pole. New York: New American Library, 2001.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A mediocre recounting of the Polaris expedition, the poisoning of Captain Hall, the Tyson trip on the ice floe. Nothing about reading except one note on the presence of books.

Weird and Tragic Shores: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer.

Loomis, Chauncey C. New York: Knopf, 1971.
  • 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
 Preview 

An excellent account of the life of the most eccentric of Arctic explorers who essentially abandoned his family in Cincinnati to pursue his Arctic dreams. Unprepared and inexperienced in Arctic ways, he adopted to and adapted Eskimo ways of living and survival by living with them for long periods and learning from them their secrets of survival. Both his origins and demise are clouded in mystery.