Greeley Expedition Specimens Donated to National Museum

Summary

Lieutenant A. W. Greely, who led the International Polar Expedition, 1882-1883, to Lady Franklin Bay, Grinnell Land, Greenland, donated specimens of 64 species of plants to the U. S. National Museum (Accession 16064). The expedition to the Polar Seas was part of the first International Polar Year. After Greely and his party became trapped at Lady Franklin Bay, relief expeditions were sent in 1882, 1883, and 1884. Finally, in 1884, the starving remnants of the group were rescued. Much of the equipment and collections were, however, left behind. Members of the various relief expeditions, including Navy ensigns A. Ackerman, H. G. Dressel, C. A Harlow, and C. S. McClain, were trained at the National Museum and also collected a wide range of natural history specimens during the relief voyages aboard the ships Proteus, Yantic, Thetus, Bear, Loch Garry, and Alert

Subject

• Greely, Adolphus Washington
• Dressel, H. G
• Ackerman, A
• Harlow, C. A
• McClain, C. S
• United States Dept. of the Navy
• United States Army Signal Corps
• National Museum of Natural History (U.S.)
• United States National Museum
• International Polar Expedition 1882-1883
• International Polar Year 1882-1883
• Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-1884)

Category

Chronology of Smithsonian History

Notes

• Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, to July 1885, Part II. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1886, pp. 212-214.
• Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, for the Year 1883. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1885, pp. 14, 41, 331, and 357.
• Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, for the Year 1884. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1885, pp. 14-16.
• Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, for the Year 1885. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1886, p. 7.
• John Edwards Caswell. Arctic Frontiers: United States Exploration of the Far North. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1956.

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

1885

Topic

• Discovery and exploration
• Scientific expeditions
• Collecting and collections

Place

• Polar regions
• Greenland

Full Record

View Full Record