“Congering” the Past: The Books of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-84), Before and After.

Stam, David H. In North by Degree. Edited by Susan Kaplan and Robert Peck. (Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society, 2014). p. 240-56,.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An account of the library at Lady Franklin Bay, its planning under Henry Howgate, its active use under Adolphus Greely, and its disposition under Robert Peary.

Abandoned: The Story of the Greely Arctic Expedition, 1881-1884.

Todd, Alden L. Introduction by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A compelling account of the tragedies and muted triumphs of the Adolphus Washington Greely Expedition. Stefansson’s introduction is fascinating for its discussion of cannibalism and what he calls “rabbit starvation” or “protein poisoning” which makes the case that those who died were the more likely cannibals than the survivors. Todd himself calls his story “essentially one of the physical and moral courage displayed by a small group of men abandoned to hunger and cold in the distant, early days of Arctic work” (p. xix).

Chances for Arctic Survival: Greely’s Expedition Revisited.

Wesławski, Jan Marcin, and Joanna Legeżyńska. Arctic 55 4 (Dec. 2002) 373-79.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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The caloric requirements of the expedition survivors could not have been met by their available resources exclusive of cannibalism.

Report of Winfield S. Schley, Commander, U.S. Navy, commanding Greely relief expedition of 1884

U. S. Navy Dept. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely); 1884 Greely Relief Expedition of 1883 (Commander Winfield S. Schley).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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With its extremely detailed accounting of the provisioning of this expedition, the report lists books ordered for the journey on March 1, 1884, for each of the three ships (Alert, Thetis, and Bear) as follows:

Report of the Operations of the U.S. Revenue Steamer Nunivak on the Yukon River Station, Alaska, 1899-1901.

Cantwell, John C. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1902.
  • 1899-1901 US Revenue Operations in Alaska (commanded John C. Cantwell aboard Revenue Steamer Nunivak).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 49: Grouse and ptarmigan were fairly abundant throughout the winter and not only afforded excellent sport, but also furnished an agreeable change from our rather monotonous fare of canned meats. Two days of the week were set aside as holidays for the crew and permission was granted them to go hunting and trapping in the vicinity of Fort Shoemaker. With one or two exceptions, however, the men preferred to remain on board reading, smoking, or sleeping, rather than to go on hunting trips through the woods after game. As the regular drills and other duties gave them plenty of out-of-door exercise, I did not interfere with their method of spending the time given them for recreation and amusement.

A Woman’s Trip to Alaska, Being an Account of a Voyage through the Inland Seas of the Sitkan Archipelago in 1890.

Collis, Septima M. New York: Cassell Publishing, 1890.
  • 1890 US Tourist Voyage to Alaska (Septima Collis).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An unusual woman’s trip for the time, written to encourage other women to abandon their grand tours in favor of this northern one. Miss Collis proves to be a self-indulgent, spoiled wealthy New Yorker, with no sympathy for the natives who “should be coerced into good behavior” (p. 15). She was a Jewish southerner who married a Philadelphia soldier, a general in the Civil War. She travelled with him during the war and wrote a book about her experiences in a divided family. That may be a better book than this self-indulgent one.

Race for the Pole.

Weems, John Edward. Preface by Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York: Henry Holt, 1960.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Generally a whitewash of the Peary legend and legacy (mainly about the 1908-09 expedition) written as a homely narrative based according to Weems on thorough documentation. Although there is a decent bibliography one can’t find documentation for any given passage.

My Arctic Journal: A Year among Ice-fields and Eskimos….

Peary, Josephine Diebitsch. New York: Contemporary Publishing Company, 1894.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1891-97 and 1898 US Northern Greenland and North Pole Expeditions (Commanded by Robert E. Peary).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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An account of Mrs. Peary’s Greenland journey accompanying her husband in 1891-92. She comes across as fairly demure but domineering over both Henson and the natives.

The Arctic Problem, And Narrative of the Peary Relief Expedition of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

Heilprin, Angelo. Philadelphia, PA: Contemporary Publishing Co., 1893.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1891-97 and 1898 US Northern Greenland and North Pole Expeditions (Commanded by Robert E. Peary).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Preface [n.p.]: The interest which at the present moment centres about Polar exploration is perhaps broad enough to permit of a few additional pages being added to the lengthening literature of the subject, even though they be wantng in a recital of those mishaps and hard ships which have made Arctic reading so fascinating.

With Peary Near the Pole.

Astrup, Eivind. London: C. Arthur Pearson, 1898.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1891-97 and 1898 US Northern Greenland and North Pole Expeditions (Commanded by Robert E. Peary).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Astrup participated in two of Peary’s early Greenland expeditions, in 1891-92 and 1893-94.

Explorations in the Far North: Being the Report of an Expedition under the Auspices of the University of Iowa during the Years 1892, ’93, and ’94.

Russell, Frank. Iowa City, IA: The University, 1898 [AMS Press reprint 1986].
  • 1892-94 US University of Iowa Expedition to Far North.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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This expedition was more ethnographic than geographic, dealing with Cree, Athabaskan, as well as natural history of the Mackenzie region, and venturing as far as Herschel and Wrangel.

Shipwrecked in Greenland.

Thompson, Arthur R. Boston: Little, Brown, 1905.
  • 1894 US Expedition to Greenland aboard Miranda.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A summer pleasure expedition by a few American young men that ended in the shipwreck of the Miranda off the Greenland coast. Reads like a young adult adventure, introducing young readers to the realities of Arctic exploration.

Report of the Cruise of the U. S. Revenue Cutter Bear and the Overland Expedition for the Relief of the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean, from November 27, 1897 to September 13, 1898.

Tuttle, Francis, Capt. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1899.
  • 1897-98 US Revenue Service Cruise and Overland Rescue Expedition in Relief of Whalers (Tuttle aboard Bear).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 22, on the murder of a native by other natives: About 11 o'clock in the forenoon on the 17th of November, 1807, Mr. Rustan Nelson was sitting in his house reading, and Messrs. Charles Sandbourne and George F. Tilton were working in one of the other rooms, when they all heard two rifle shots fired in quick succession, followed shortly after by four others. Nelson thrust his revolver in his pocket, rushed out of the house, and there saw, close to the house, two natives, Avulik and Shukurana, each with a smoking rifle in his hand, standing over the body of Washok, which was lying on the snow close to his sled, pierced with six bullet holes. Washok's wife was close by, and several other natives were running to the scene of the firing. Sandbourne and Tilton ran out soon after Nelson, and after ascertaining that Washok was dead and beyond all help, they all returned to the house. Soon after the body was carried out into the country and put up on sticks, after the native fashion, the murderers aiding in the ceremony.