Trip to Alaska. A Narrative of What was Seen and Heard During a Summer Cruise in Alaskan Waters.

Wardman, George. San Francisco: Samuel Carson & Company. 1884.
  • 1879 US Treasury Summer Cruise to Alaska (Captain Bailey aboard Richard Rush).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 79-80, on Russian church services in the 1880s: As you enter, the congregation stands facing the screen, but back from the rotunda. The men stand upon the right, the women on the left. The singers consist of men and boys led by the second priest. In Sitka the choir had a position behind a screen to the right of the rotunda. Here in Onalaska they occupy a narrow gallery, where there is also a bench for visitors.

The Journal of Post Captain Nicolas Baudin, Commander-in-Chief of the Corvettes, Géographe and Naturaliste. Assigned by the Order of the Government to a Voyage of Discovery.

Baudin, Nicolas. Translated from the French by Christine Cornell. Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1974.
  • 1801-03 French Exploring Expedition to South Seas and Terra Australis (Captain Nicolas Baudin aboard Géographe).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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This is a magnificent edition of Baudin’s expeditionary journal in English translation, including listings of the exploration books on each of the two vessels. There is nothing that I could easily find in this journal about any reading of those books, though there seem to have been no natural occasions for such reading, e.g. a winterover.

Searching for the Franklin Expedition. The Arctic Journal of Robert Randolph Carter.

Carter, Robert Randolph. (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998).
  • 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Private journal of a cruise in the Brig Rescue in search of Franklin, together with the Advance. Part of US Grinnell Expedition in 1850, one of 12 search vessels that year. Carter was first officer of the Rescue, a small ship that wintered in 1850-51 off Beechey Island in, where the bodies of three of Franklin’s menrs had been found. Clearly Carter is intelligent witty and educated. p. 10: The headquarters [of the expedition] were the luxurious Astor House, whose accommodations were provided by the management; and the Grinnells had already stocked the ships’ libraries with books, many written by earlier Arctic explorers.

The Arctic Navy List, or, A Century of Arctic & Antarctic Officers, 1773-1873: Together with a List of Officers of the 1875 Expedition, and Their Services.

Markham, Clements R. (London: Griffin, 1875).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Preface describes 3 generations of explorers from 1773 to 1873: 1) Cook and Phipps; 2) Ross, Parry, Franklin, Back; 3) Franklin searches. 4th would begin with the Nares expedition of 1875. The book is a biographical list showing voyage, ship, role in winter activities of all officers (e.g. Henry Kellett on Resolute where he was on the Committee of Management of the “Royal Arctic Theatre” 1852-54, before Belcher ordered abandonment of Resolute). Useful reference—there is a 1992 facsimile.

Nansen

Hall, Anna Gertrude. Illustrated by Boris Artzybasheff. New York: Viking Press, 1940.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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p. 67, on equipping the Fram for Nansen’s North Pole voyage: There were a library of a thousand books and a supply of games and musical instruments to help pass the time.

Lure of the North.

Finnie, Richard. Philadelphia: David McKay Co., 1940.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Finnie was a Canadian photographer, filmmaker, and lecturer who gave regular presentations on the Arctic throughout the 1930s. He “spent a year in the western Arctic between Herschel and King William Island in 1930, revisited the region in 1934 and 1939, and gives here sketches and essays on its people, the Eskimos and the whites, and their way of life” (Arctic Bibliography 4991). In this work, he was particularly concerned with the impact of new sub-Arctic wells and mines, as well as other forms of development, on the native population. [ABEBOOKS 11/24/2019]

The Red River Library: A Search after Knowledge and Refinement.

Castling, Leslie D. Readings in Canadian Library History. Edited by Peter McNally. Toronto: Canadian Library Association, 1986, p. 153-66.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. 154: Consequently, books were introduced into the colony only a year after the first party of settlers arrived at York Factory in 1812. The children “were instructed in arithmetic, reading, and writing, using books furnished at Selkirk’s expense from the British and Foreign School Society.” Lord Selkirk was very involved in ordering book sources for the community. HBD conducted an inventory including books in 1822, and again in 1825.

Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic.

Niven, Jennifer. New York: Hyperion, 2003.
  • 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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A readable but tendentious biography of the lone survivor of four men and one woman on Stefansson’s Wrangel Island expedition of 1921-23. The author is anti-Stefansson to some extreme, and while she may have some good points it would be difficult to verify them given the inadequacy of the documentation provided. There is no index.

Reminiscences of Adventure and Service. A Record of Sixty-Five Years.

Greely, Adolphus W. New York: Scribner’s, 1927.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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A sanitized, somewhat saccharine autobiography which delves shallowly into the IPY expedition of 1881-84 ( p. 120-51), and doesn’t even mention his one-time friend Henry W. Howgate, without whom the expedition never would have happened. Although descended from British settlers from 1623, Greely was a working-class boy, educated through high school (including Latin). He enlisted as a private in 1861, served in a number of battles (incl. Antietam) before being promoted to lieutenant at age 18 to command a black infantry regiment. For the Greely Arctic expedition he emphasizes the scientific purposes of the IPY over pole-seeking adventure. At Fort Conger (p. 122) “needful relief from scientific labors was had by the celebration of festive occasions, the issue of a newspaper, the training and coddling of our dogs, the devising of contests and games. So, work and play marked our lives in the comfortable home, where well-cooked meals, warm quarters and plentiful reading matter were duly enjoyed.” Such was not the case at Camp Clay at Cape Sabine at the end of their retreat. Greely does deal with the execution of Private Henry but not the cannibalism allegations, nor with his bad relations with officers and men.

Two Men in the Antarctic: An Expedition to Graham Land 1920-1922.

Bagshawe, Thomas Wyatt. With a Foreword by Frank Debenham. Cambridge: University Press, 1939.
  • 1920-22 British Graham Land Expedition.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Elaborate plans made by John Cope, including a flight to the South Pole with George Hubert Wilkins, diminished for lack of funds to a winter spent by Bagshawe and Lt. Maxime Lester in an abandoned whaleboat, turned over to provide some shelter. Remarkably, the two men did perform some scientific work and observations. William Mills called it “the smallest party ever to winter on the Antarctic continent.”

The Hazen Court-Martial: The Responsibility for the Disaster of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition Definitely Established with Proposed Reforms in the Law and Practice of Courts-Martial.

Mackey, Thomas J. New York: Van Nostrand, 1885.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Mackey held Secretary of War Robert T. Lincoln responsible for the tragedy by withholding necessary support because of his animosity to Hazen, Chief Signal Officer. Secondly he blamed Garlington for not following the plan as ordered, a plan on which Greeley depended for survival. (p. 7). On p. 6 Mackey refers to the North Pole as “the crown jewel of the Arctic dome.”

Explorers Club Archives II

  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, EC2007-07 [Not all of these files have been carefully reviewed and some await further inspection.]