Arctic Regions, Voyage to Davis’ Strait.

Duncan, David. By David Duncan, Master of the Ship Dundee…July 1826-27. (London: E. Billing, 1827).
  • 1826-27 British Whaling Expedition (aboard Dundee, commanded by David Duncan).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
    Whalemen's Reading
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Claimed to be the only fishing ship to winter over with crew on board, in company with another ship which was wrecked. Nothing found on reading but an unusual early adventure.

The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore.

Hutchinson, John Robert. London: Eveleigh Nash, 1913.
  • Whalemen's Reading
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p. 42-3, description of life of impressed seaman: With books he was for many years ‘very scantily supplied.’ It was not till 1812, indeed, that the Admiralty, shocked by the discovery that he had practically nothing to elevate his mind but daily association with the quarter-deck, began to pour into the fleet copious supplies of literature for his use. Thereafter the sailor could beguile his leisure with such books as the Old Chaplain’s Farewell Letter, Wilson’s Maxims, The Whole Duty of Man, Secker’s Duties of the Sick, and, lest returning health should dissipate the piety begotten of his ailments, Gibson’s Advice after Sickness. Thousands of pounds were spent upon this improving literature, which was distributed to the fleet in strict accordance with the amount of storage room available at the various dockyards. [Footnote: Ad. Accountant-General, Misc. (Various), No. 106—Accounts of the Rev. Archdeacon Owen, Chaplain-General to the Fleet, 1812-7.]

First on the Antarctic Continent, Being an Account of the British Antarctic Expedition 1898-1900

Borchgrevink, Carsten E. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1980 [Reprint 1901].
  • 1898–1900 British Antarctic Expedition (Carsten Borchgrevink on Southern Cross).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Borchgrevink comes across as a sanctimonious sycophant, at least at the beginning, full of himself and his role in “the world’s history.” For contrast from an antagonist, see Louis Charles Bernacchi who detested Borchgrevink. Pretty clear that this is one of those self-serving travel accounts which conceals the depths of animosity that developed within his staff.

Incidents of a Whaling Voyage. To which are Added Observations on the…Sandwich and Society Islands.

Olmsted, Francis Allyn. New edition. New York: D. Appleton, 1841. [Reprinted Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1969.].
  • Whalemen's Reading
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Olmsted was a passenger aboard the whaler North American [a temperance ship] in 1839, a trip taken as a kind of rest cure for his chronic nervous debility. He returned to Yale for medical school and in fact graduated but died in 1844 after a second voyage.

The Frozen Deep.

Collins, Wilkie. In The Works of Wilkie Collins. Vol. 4. (New York: Collier, 1900?). p. 495-614.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Short novella which first appeared as an amateur theatrical drama produced and acted by Dickens in 1857, and this version in prose in 1875. It combines arctic exploration (Franklin search vintage) with a love conflict between two explorers on the same expedition, one accepted and another rejected by the same young woman. The woman claims Second Sight to know the outcome of the conflict (she’s wrong), probably reflecting Kane’s experience with the Fox sisters and telepathy.

Igloo for the Night.

Manning, Ella Wallace. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1943.
  • 1938 Hudson Bay Voyage of Nascopie.
  • Hudson's Bay Company.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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R.M.S. Nascopiewas the chief supply ship of the Hudson’s Bay Company with 34 annual visits to Northern Arctic outposts coming through Hudson Strait from the UK until 1933 when it was reassigned to Montreal.

In the Days of the Red River Rebellion.

McDougall, John. Toronto: Briggs, 1903.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 26-27, winter of 1868-69 near Edmondton: Most of our reading was done by the time tallow dip or chimney fire; our literature was limited, and of the ancient type; one thousand miles to the nearest post gave us very little trouble with our mail.

This Distant and Unsurveyed Country.

Ross, William Gillies. Montreal, McGill University Press, 1997.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 158: To keep the men alert and cheerful at winter harbor on the search expedition [Franklin search 1850-51], Penny’s surgeons had organized the “Royal Cornwallis Theatre” on board the Lady Franklin. Drawing actors from both ships and also from Sir John Ross’s nearby vessel, the company distributed printed handbills and performed in front of an audience of fifty, wearing calico costumes and accompanied by music that was described—possibly, with some exaggeration—as “tolerable” (Sutherland 1852: I. 428). At about the same time, the “Arctic Academy” got under way, also under the direction of the surgeons. Its classes ran for three hours a night, four nights a week. Reading, writing, and arithmetic formed the basis of the curriculum, but geography excited the men’s interest in a special way because some of them had sailed on merchant voyages to various parts of the world. Despite a limited supply of educational materials (slates, some paper and pencils, an old world map, and one copy of Johnston’sPhysical Atlas),the seamen (some of whom were barely literate) eagerly participated in discussions of global physical and human geography. The brightest men on the ships showed promise of learning elementary navigation by winter’s end.

Danish Greenland: Its People and Its Products

Rink, Henry. Edited by Dr. Robert Brown. London: Henry S. King, 1877.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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p. 168: on training of indigenous boys: The author cannot omit adding one instance to illustrate this. Once he took such a boy with him to Denmark, where he stayed only one winter as apprentice in a printing-office, and acquired a skill in book-printing, lithography, and bookbinding, of which he has afterwards given proofs by managing, all by himself, without the least assistance, a small office in Greenland, the productions of which will be mentioned by and by. This young man is by no means a rare exception; perhaps one out of ten may be found to be equally highly gifted. It cannot be denied that the half-breeds seem to surpass the original race as regards such perfectibility.

The People of the Polar North: A Record.

Rasmussen, Knud. Compiled from the Danish Originals and Edited by G. Herring. Illustrations by Count Harald Moltke. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1908. [another edition London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1908].
  • Greenland.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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But, as its title implies, it is first and foremost an account of the most northerly dwelling people in the world, that is to say, of the little Eskimo group of nomads who wander from settlement to settlement between Cape York, North of Melville Bay, and Cape Alexander (approximately therefore between 76˚ and 78˚ N. latitude), and who are called in this book the Polar Eskimos [Editor’s Preface].

Manuscripts and Archives Division, Library of Congress.

Clay Family Papers.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Henry [Harry] Clay, of the Howgate Preliminary Expedition on the Gulnare, was the grandson of the famous Henry Clay of Lexington, KY. Materials about him and by him are in Section II. Box 46, and probably elsewhere in the Library of Congress manuscript collections.

In Search of a Polar Continent, 1905-1907.

Harrison, Alfred H. London: Edward Arnold, 1908.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 22, re the Catholic mission at Resolution: The children are not only educated but clothed and fed. The girls are taught how to sew and how to make their own clothes, as well as how to read and write; whilst the boys, who are also trained in these latter academic, if elementary, exercises, acquire a variety of crafts which will be useful—in fact indispensable—to them in afterlife.

The Last Place on Earth

Huntford, Roland. New York, Modern Library, 1999. [First published as Scott and Amundsen in 1979.].
  • Heroic Age 1901-1921.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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This tendentious work has split the community of Antarcticans woefully, with attacks on all sides: against Amundsen, particularly against Scott by the Huntford adherents, and fighting malice with malice, against Huntford himself. Few are wholly objective in this war, but it can be said that Huntford does present useful information when he stays away from anti-Scott speculation. Here are excerpts about reading on the various expeditions he covers.

I Sailed with Rasmussen

Freuchen, Peter. [Freuchen’s Own Story of the Great Explorer].New York: Messner, 1958.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Primarily a biographical work on Knud Rasmussen. Neat stories on p. 149-51 on making a rotten piece sound enticing to an unsuspecting visitor, and p. 172 about a small boy and a ferocious bear.