The Journal of Annie Holes Ricketson on the Whaleship A. R. Tucker, 1871-1874.

Ricketson, Annie Holmes. From the Original in the Kendall Whaling Museum. New Bedford, MA: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1958.
  • 1871-74 American Whaling Expedition to Indian Ocean (aboard A. R. Tucker).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A good example of the so-called petticoat whaler, the Captain’s wife. 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.

Etah and Beyond: Or, Life Within Twelve Degrees of the Pole.

MacMillan, Donald Baxter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1927.
  • 1926-27 US Northern Greenland Expedition (commanded by Donald MacMillan aboard Bowdoin).
  • Greenland.
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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A 1926-27 Greenland expedition aboard the Bowdoin, with the purpose of setting up new magnetic stations and resettling old ones.

The Voyage of the Challenger.

Linklater, Eric. New York: Doubleday, 1972.
  • 1872-76 Challenger Expedition of Natural History (George Nares and Frank Thompson).
  • Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
  • Maritime Reading
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Speaks here and there of the boredom of a scientific voyage that dredged ocean bottoms thousands of times through the ocean world. Dredging was known as “drudging” and even some desertions were attributed to boredom.

Knight, Errol Lorne. Typescript diary of Wrangel expedition in which Knight died (Dartmouth STEF Mss 90, folder I. 3-Original diary is in folder 1.
  • 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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This is the diary apparently doctored by Harold Noice with long sections missing and some lines erased, some having to do with Ada Blackjack (cf. p. 15, Jan 14): I am sure she is the most stubborn creature I have ever known. [That comment follows 3 erased lines.]

Whaling Will Never Do for Me: The American Whaleman in the Nineteenth Century.

Busch, Briton Cooper. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1994.
  • Maritime Reading
    Whalemen's Reading
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An artful account of nineteenth-century whaling, with fascinating chapters on the overall industry, crime and punishment, relations and legal complications with US consular officials, desertion, religion, women (prostitutes and wives), ceremonial occasions, and an Honolulu riot.

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.

“Pechuck”: Lorne Knight’s Adventures in the Arctic.

Montgomery, Richard G. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1948.
  • 1921-23 Canadian Wrangel Island Expedition (Organized by Vilhjalmur Stefansson).
  • Arctic Reading: Canada
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Knight was born in 1893, son of a Methodist minister from Oregon. He died on Wrangel Island in 1923 of scurvy, in company with Ada Blackjack.

Shores of the Polar Sea: A Narrative of the Arctic Expedition of 1875-6.

Moss, Edward L. (London: Marcus Ward & Co., 1878).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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p. 9: While our two ships steamed northward along the west shores of Greenland, the novel charm of constant daylight was felt by every one. We all had our own ideas of what Arctic summer would be like, but ideas drawn from books rarely remain unchanged when brought face to face with reality. Although the passage into perpetual day was of course gradual, yet it was quite rapid enough to upset all regular habits.

Congress and the North Pole; An Abstract of Arctic Legislation in the Congress of the United States.

Howgate, Henry W. Kansas City, Mo.: Kansas City Review of Science and Industry, 1879.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 22ff, discussion on April 16, 1856, by Congressmen of Kane’s Narrative, Mr Tyson recommending the purchase of “fifteen thousand copies for the use of Congress.”

Six Came Back: The Arctic Adventure of David L. Brainard.

Brainard, David L. Edited by Bessie Rowland James. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1940.
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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David Brainard's diary, kept during the Lady Franklin Bay Arctic Expedition which had started out in 1881, is here edited by Bessie Rowland James. Brainard was a Sergeant at the time but attained the rank of Brigadier-General by the end of his career. A remarkable diary for its clarity, regularity, modesty, and dispassionate approach to whatever happened.

The North-West Passage by Land. Being the Narrative of an Expedition from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Undertaken with the View of Exploring a Route across the Continent to British Columbia through British Territory, by One of the Northern Passes in the Rocky Mountains.

Milton, Viscount, William Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, and W. B. Cheadle. [By] Viscount Milton and W. B. Cheadle. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, 1865.
  • 1862-64? British Private Overland Expedition in Search of North-West Passage by Land.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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A very curious, almost quixotic account of a couple of aristocratic travelers seeking an overland route to the gold fields of British Columbia.

Explorer’s Wife.

De Long, Emma Wotton. Introduction by Vilhajlmur Stefansson. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1938.
  • 1879-81 US North Pole Expedition (commanded by George De Long aboard Jeannette).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 1: During the winter of 1932 Vilhjalmur Stefansson asked me to lend some of the relics of the Jeannette Expedition, commanded by my husband, to Mr. Bassett Jones of the Explorers Club. Mr. Jones was organizing a private exhibition of Arctic books and relics at the Grolier Club of New York. I had such things aplenty, of course, and gladly complied. Among those chosen were the large journal written by my husband on board the Jeannette up to the time of her crushing by the ice pack, the two ice journals in pencil, which faithfully recorded his fearful trip southward with his men to Siberia across the ice, and a silk flag which I had made as my contribution to the Expedition.

. 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).

Under the Northern Lights, with Illustrations by G. R de Wilde.

MacGahan, Januarius A. (London: Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, 1876).
  • 1875-76 Private Expedition to Magnetic North Pole and North West Passage (Captain Allen Young aboard Pandora).
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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Narrative of Captain Allen Young's expedition in his yacht Pandora (later the Jeannette), 1875-76, into Lancaster Sound, Barrow Strait, and into Peel Sound. Also contains an account of Young's sledge trips during M'Clintock's Fox Expedition. The Voyage was privately organized, its object to sail to the magnetic pole by way of Lancaster Sound and from there negotiate the North West Passage. They reached Beechey Island where they found a number of relics left by earlier expeditions but were finally beset by ice in Franklin Strait. There were two other works written on this expedition, both by the commander, one was privately published and contained photographs. (ABEBooks description.)