Icy Hell: Experiences of a News Real Cameraman in the Aleutian Islands, Eastern Siberia and the Arctic Fringe of Alaska.

Hudson, Will E. London: Constable & Company, 1937.
  • 1930s? US Hunting Trip to Alaska, Aleutian Islands, and Siberia.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 59: A few hours out of Petropavlosk as we headed north we found the ice! Into the Arctic ice at last! What a thrill, to say the least. All of the polar stories that I had read came back to me. From the time I was a small boy and read my first stories of adventures in the ice I had dreamed and longed for the experience of being in this ice wilderness. Mental pictures of Deschev, Bering, Cook, Kane, Amundsen, Scott, Peary, Shackleton, Stefansson and the host of others who have written their names in the pages of North and South Polar exploration passed in review.

Schwatka’s Search: Sledging in the Arctic in Quest of the Franklin Records.

Gilder, William H. New York: Scribner’s, 1881.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Not to be confused with his Greely rescue, much of this earlier journey was published in the New York Herald for whom Gilder was a correspondent who also had gone in search of the Jeannette. The book credits the Schwatka expedition with confirming the loss of Franklin records (at Starvation Cove), the burial of the men and bones of the victims, the transport of one body home, and the recovery of the relics that went to Greenwich.

To the Ends of the Earth.

Pease, Francis K. London: Hurst & Blackett, 1935.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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Begins with 1925 cruise to Antarctica aboard Discovery, Scott’s old ship, commanded by Stenhouse. First brought gifts to Tristan da Cunha, including many writing implements, essentially useless to that population, and “a large quantity of Bibles, in which, however, the Tristans displayed very little interest, for the reason…that during the course of the years so many Bibles had been sent to the island that there was now an average of seven copies per inhabitant” (p. 20).

The Signal Corps and its Weather Service,

Hawes, Joseph M. Military Affairs 30 (Summer) 1966, p. 68-76.
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 73, Hawes notes that when Hazen became Chief of the Signal Office in 1880 one of his projects was the “study room” which signaled an effort of the Office to do its own scientific research, independent of outside physicists. Apparently, this study room played a role in the bibliography of meteorology. See also Cleveland Abbe, “Meteorology and Allied Subjects” in Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution…for 1881 (Washington: GPO, 1883) p. 231-331, which cites Hazen’s hopes that the Signal Corps would “take its stand among the foremost in the scientific study and investigation of…theoretical meteorology” (p. 239). Also notes (p. 234) the intention of the International Polar Commission to publish summaries of the data collected by all the IPY stations. Says nothing of the “study room.”

“The Mirny Diary” 12 February 1958–7 February 1959

Rubin, Morton J. https://www.antarctican.org/s/MJRubin-Mirny_Diary-jspy.pdf.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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This detailed diary was contributed by Morton Rubin's brother Harry. He gives credit to Mr. and Mrs. Martin Sponholz for painstakingly deciphering and transcribing Morton's original hand-written manuscript. It is a fascinating glimpse of winterover life at an IGY Russian station.

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.

Discovery press clippings

Probably compiled by Emily Scott, in a volume of mounted clippings [SPRI MSS 735/1] with one loose section of four pages at rear with NZ press coverage of “The Antarctic Expedition. The Arrival of the Discovery.” [off Lyttleton Heads, and Christchurch].
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 1, col. 2: [no date] Our Wellington correspondent telegraphs that Sir James Hector of the Canadian Palliser expedition in 1857-1859, has sent to the Discovery a large number of scientific works bearing upon New Zealand. The books sent include a complete set (33 volumes) of the transactions of the New Zealand Institute. These books will greatly assist the members of the expedition in their observations and researches.

. Arctic Manual

Stefansson, Vilhjalmur. Prepared under Direction of the Chief of the Air Corps, United States Army. (New York: Macmillan, 1944).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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p. xi: Describes use of Stefansson’s library of over 15,000 books, pamphlets, and manuscripts in preparing his report on living and operating conditions in the Arctic, and also the preparation of this Manual ( 1935-43).

Of Ice and Men: The Story of the British Antarctic Survey, 1943-73.

Fuchs, Vivian. London: Anthony Nelson, 1982.
  • Antarctic Reading: General
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A comprehensive history of the first 30 years of BAS, originally known as FIDS (Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey), at first a naval exercise under the Admiralty. In effect it has been one very prolonged British expedition to West Antarctica, with emphasis on the Antarctic Peninsula and its islands.

The Hookers of Kew 1785-1911.

Allan, Mea. London: Michael Joseph, 1967.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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Joseph Hooker was part of the Erebus and Terror Antarctic expedition led by James Clark Ross, an expedition poorly equipped for scientific investigation.

Polar Pioneers. John Ross and James Clark Ross.

Ross, J. M. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A joint biography of uncle and nephew with much on other explorers of the time, e.g., Parry. There is an impressive body of contemporary literature surrounding the Rosses and Parry which is well-described here, including the acrimony between uncle and nephew, John and James.

Archives.

Marvin, Ross. Chemung County Historical Society, 415 E Water St. Elmira, NY.
  • 1891-1920 Robert Peary and the Search for the North Pole; 1905-06 US North Polar Expedition under Robert E. Peary (aboard Roosevelt).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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Log book kept by Ross G. Marvin July 1905-Jan 1906, during Peary’s North Pole attempt. Marvin was an Assistant to Peary, and Henson was Peary’s Personal Assistant. Marvin also kept a personal diary from July 15 1905 to Sept. 12, 1905.