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.

The Journal of Annie Holmes Ricketson on the Whaleship A. R. Tucker, 1871-1874: from the Original in the Kendall Whaling Museum.

Ricketson, Annie Holmes. (New Bedford, MA: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1958).
  • Whalemen's Reading
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A good example of the so-called petticoat whaler, the Captain’s wife., aboard the whaler A.R. Tucker. This is a fairly calm memoir with some observations about the business of whaling, and frequent reference to books, newspapers, and letters but seldom with any reading details.

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.

Labrador, The Country and the People.

Grenfell, Wilfred T., et al. New York: Macmillan, 1909.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 175: The best educated people in the country at present are the Eskimo. Almost without exception they can read and write. Many can play musical instruments, share in part singing, and are well able to keep accounts, and know the value of thins. These accomplishments, entirely and solely due to the Moravian missionaries, have largely helped them to hold their own in trade, a faculty for want of which almost every aboriginal race is apt to suffer so severely.

South Polar Times.

London: Smith, Elder, 1907-14. Dartmouth. STEF G850 1901 q. D7. 6 vols.
  • 1907-09 British Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Nimrod).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Vol. III. P. 37:

Ross in the Antarctic: The Voyages of James Clark Ross in Her Majesty’s Ships Erebus and Terror, 1839-1843.

Ross, M. J. Whitby, Yorks., England: Caedmon of Whitby, 1982.
  • 1839-42 British Antarctic Expedition (James Clark Ross/Terror and Erebus).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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An entire volume devoted to the Ross expedition with substantial chapters on each of the three Antarctic summer voyages, as well as material on each of the antipodean winter sojourns in Hobart, Tasmania, Sydney and New Zealand, and the Falklands.

The Silent Landscape: The Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger.

Corfield, Richard. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press, 2003.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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Corfield concentrates on the science of the expedition without neglecting the human relations of the scientifics. One notable chapter is called “The Library of Time,” in which the biological remains dredged from the ocean body, tiny creations which would eventually yield the details of earth’s climatic and oceanographic history: For the geologist and oceanographer there is simply nothing to match the detailed information trapped in the sediment of the deep sea; it is the library of time. [p. 135].

Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America; Effected by the Officers of the Hudson’s Bay Company during the Years 1836-39.

Simpson, Thomas. London: Richard Bentley, 1843.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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From the introductory memoir of Simpson by his brother Alexander (p. xviii), following the death of Simpson at the hands of a few Métis: if, indeed, it pleased Providence to darken the spirit which had passed undaunted through so many we can but acknowledge that the decrees of God are inscrutable to mortals, and join in these beautiful lines of Cowper:

A Voyage of Discovery, Made under the Orders of the Admiralty, in His Majesty’s Ships Isabella and Alexander, for the Purpose of Exploring Baffin’s Bay, and Inquiring into the Probability of a North-West Passage.

Ross, Sir John. Second edition. Two volumes.(London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819).
  • 1818 First British Northwest Passage Expedition (John Ross aboard Isabella with the Alexander).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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The first nineteenth-century attempt to locate a Northwest Passage was commanded by John Ross, a moderately successful expedition that ruined his reputation. John Barrow of the Admiralty was so outraged at Ross’s failure to explore fully Lancaster Sound that he did everything in his power to discredit Ross after this expedition.

In the Land of White Death: an Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic.

Albanov, Valerian. Preface by Jon Krakauer…. New York, Modern Library, 2000.
  • Arctic Reading: Russia
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p. 17: I have already mentioned that there were no maps on board that were of any use to us, and that I had copied our only existing map out of Nansen’s book. Other than that volume and Kolchak’s The Ice of the Siberian Sea , we had no other relevant works. Although Lieutenant Brusilov had bought a small library for hundreds of rubles before our departure, it contained only novels, stories, and old journals—not a single book of any use to us except Nansen’s Farthest North . Nansen was our only guide, and provided everything we knew about Franz Josef Land…. Drawing all our knowledge from Nansen’s experiences, we treated his book like a precious treasure. I had reread it so often that I could cite entire passages from memory. [Albanov also mentions an English technical journal that had charts for the altitude of the sun and astronomy charts for the period (p. 18).]

Elisha Kent Kane and the Seafaring Frontier

Mirsky, Jeannette. . Edited by Oscar Handlin. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 55-56, on setting off on the first Grinnell expedition: I collected as I could some simple instruments for thermal and magnetic registration, which would have been of use if they had found their way on board. A very few books for the dark hours of winter, and a stock of coarse woolen clothing…constituted my entire outfit; and with these I made my report to Commodore Salter at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The Charles W. Morgan Ship’s Books, 1841

Leavitt, John F. Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport, 1973.
  • Maritime Reading
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p. 6: The Morgan sailed on her first voyage September 6, 1841, under command of Captain Norton, with twenty-six-year-old James C. Osborn, also of Edgartown, as second mate and keeper of a journal of the voyage. Osborn must have been literarily inclined for he took a library of over seventy volumes with him, including books on history, travel and memoirs as well as twenty-two volumes of Marryatt’s works.

Dr John Rae.

Richards, Robert L. Whitby, Yorkshire: Caedmon of Whitby Publishers, 1985.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 35: Rae happily spent the winter [1845] at York Factory. He built a ‘laboratory’ and occupied himself with meteorological observations and he taught some of his men to assist him. The company [HBC] maintained a small library at York and Rae used it to continue his study of natural history, botany, geology and other subjects.

In Search of a Penguin’s Egg.

Norman, Nelson. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2009.
  • 1958-59 British FIDS (BAS) Expedition at Halley Bay.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Norman Nelson was in the British National Service when he was transferred to a FIDS expedition to the Falklands and the Antarctic Peninsula in 1958. Raymond Priestley introduced him to the prospect of following up on Edward Wilson’s penguin studies of 1911. His experience was similar.