Polar Regions:

Archive and manuscript sources in the Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine

The archives and manuscripts collections cover a broad range of subjects dating from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. This is one of a series of thematic guides designed to assist users of the collections to identify material of particular relevance to their research. For more detailed subject searching users can run keyword or subject searches in the Archives and Manuscripts on-line catalogue, http://archives.wellcome.ac.uk. In some cases full catalogues of archive collections are not yet in the database: hard copy versions are available in the Rare Materials Room of the Library and on request to archs+mss@wellcome.ac.uk

Edward Adams (fl.1824-1856): notebook listing words in English, Russian and Alaskan Inuit and containing sketches of Arctic scenes, 1850-1 MSAmer108

Arctic Tools: volume containing watercolours and list of tools used by Arctic peoples, c.1885 MS8595

Admiral Sir George Back FRS(1796-1878), British Arctic explorer: printed affidavit concerning Back, 1823; letters, including 1 to Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), 1844-65, n.d. MS7404/1-6; see also Thorndike Collection, MS7486.

Sir John Barrow (1764-1848), second secretary to the Admiralty, promoter of naval exploration: letters, correspondents including the Arctic explorers Sir John Franklin and Sir William Edward Parry, 1796-1841 MS7880

Arthur Wellington Clah (1831-1916): Journals, account-books and note-books by a Tsimshian Native American, 1859-c. 1920, at New Metlakahtla, Alaska, from 1887 MSAmer140

Hans Georg Epstein: correspondence on medicine and anaesthesia in Greenland and Iceland, 1960s PP/HGE

Explorers and Travellers: correspondence and papers of various explorers and travellers, chiefly 19th century English. Polar figures represented include Hjalmar Johanssen, companion of Nansen (1867-1913); Sir Robert McClure (1807-1873); Baron Nils Adolf Nordenskjöld (1832-1901); Sir James Clark Ross (1801-1862); and Jean Sylvestre (fl.1785-1817), native of Guadaloupe, member of the expedition to the North Pacific led by Jean François de Galaup, Count of La Pérouse (1741-1788); anonymous brief description of expeditions by Captain Middleton and Mr. Dobbs in Hudson’s Bay, 1741-7; letter by Mary Watts Russell to Mr. Meynell, an autograph collector, sending him the autograph of Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) (not present), 1776-1918, n.d. MS7328

Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), British Arctic explorer: correspondence relating to Sir John, his first wife Eleanor Franklin née Porden (1797?-1825) and his second wife Jane, Lady Franklin, née Griffin (1792-1875); correspondents include the geographer Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871); one letter mentions the Arctic explorer Francis Leopold McClintock (1819-1907), 1811-57, n.d. MS7402; Letter from Sir John Richardson, 1823, and to him, 1833, MS6127/7-8; letters relating to Franklin’s period as Governor of Tasmania, with occasional reference to polar material or relevant individuals, 1838-56, n.d. MS7831; see also Explorers and Travellers: General section; George Back and Sir John Barrow, above; and Thorndike Collection, sections on John Ross and Edward Sabine, MS7486

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), botanist and traveller, member of James Clark Ross’s Antarctic expedition, 1838-66, n.d. MS7830/22-29

Dr. Richard King, British Arctic traveller, advocate of lightweight equipment and Inuit methods: letters to and from Thomas Hodgkin MD and his executors, 1833-66. (WMS/PP/HO: see collection index); Printed material, in papers of Robert McCormick, 1844-5 MS8682/16-18

Denis Gascoigne Lillie (1888–1963), marine biologist to Robert Falcon Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition: notebooks including biological log and whale log compiled on Scott’s ship the Terra Nova. 1903-15 MS3259-3286; scrapbook, c.1845-1910 MS5252; cuttings relating to Scott expedition, 1910-14 MS5253; correspondence and papers, 1824-1938, n.d. MS5254

Admiral Sir [Francis] Leopold McClintock (1819-1907), member of various Arctic expeditions and discoverer of the fate of the last Franklin expedition: letters, correspondents including Sir Clements Markham FRS (1830-1916), geographer and historical writer, 1859-94, n.d. MS7879.

Robert McCormick (1800-1890), British naval surgeon: journal of voyage to Spitsbergen and beyond in HMS Hecla commanded by Willliam Parry, 1827 MS3357; diary, memoranda and meteorological registers compiled during expedition of HMS Erebus to Antarctica commanded by James Clark Ross, 1839-43 MSS3365-3370; diary, memoranda, sketches and meteorological tables made during Franklin search expedition in HMS North Star, 1852-3 MSS3372-82; printed material, chiefly relating to his publication Narrative of a Boat-Expedition up the Wellington Channel in the Year 1852 (London: Eyre and Spotteswoode, 1854), plus testimonials, printed items by other authors, publisher’s advertisements and newspapers, 1841-c.1884 MS8682

Sir Robert Macintosh (1897-1989), anaesthetist: travel diary of visit to Alaska, 1967, PP/RRM/C.59

Sir Clements Robert Markham FRS (1830-1916), geographer and historical writer, promoter of Polar exploration: letters, 1865-1913, n.d. MS7308; description of travels in the Americas, 1852-3, plus various notes and tables, 1845-1915 MSAmer126

A E Mourant (1904-1994), geneticist working on blood groups: proposed research project 'Aleut Adaptation to the Bering Land Bridge Coastal Configuration'; material relating to Greenland and Iceland, and visit to Alaska in connection with research on Aleut blood groups,1950s-70s PP/AEM

Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930), Norwegian Arctic explorer, zoologist and statesman: letters and other material, including two letters to Sir Clements Markham (1830-1916) of which one mentions Sir Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922), and another letter that mentions Otto Sverdrup (1855-1930); 1913, n.d. MS7427/2-5 See also Thorndike Collection, MS7486

Rear-Admiral Sir William Edward Parry (1790-1855), Arctic explorer: letters and other material, correspondents including the hydrographer Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort FRS (1774-1857), concerning a manuscript from the eighteenth century on Captain William Coats’ voyages to Hudson’s Bay, and the geographer Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), 1819-54, n.d. MS7401 See also Sir John Barrow and Robert McCormick, above, and Thorndike Collection, MS7486.

James Patterson (fl.1858-1859), teacher of deaf and dumb, Manchester: diary of visit to London, including description of relics of Franklin expedition retrieved by Dr. King, 1858-9 MS7353

Admiral Bedford Clapperton Trevelyan Pim (1826-1886), member of British 1852 expedition in search of Sir John Franklin: letter, 1860 MS7430/21; see also Thorndike Collection, MS7486.

Polar explorers miscellany: letters by various individuals involved in early nineteenth century British Polar exploration, such as George Back, James Clark Ross and others, see under individuals’ names, 1821-84, n.d. MS7404

Sir Raymond Edward Priestley (1886-1974), geologist to Robert Falcon Scott’s British Antarctic Expedition: notes on bird, animal, plant and insect life in the Antarctic, compiled on Shackleton and Scott expeditions, 1908-12 MS3996

John Rae FRS (1813-1893), British Arctic explorer: letters, 1854-84, n.d. MS7404/7-12

Sir John Richardson FRS. (1787-1865), British physician, Arctic explorer and companion of Sir John Franklin (1786-1847): letters and other material, 1830-59, n.d. MS7471/28-38; letter to Sir John Franklin, 1823, and from him, 1833 MS6127/7-8; letter to Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875), geologist, 1850 MS7878/20

Eugène Louis Robert (1806-?), French physician and naturalist, traveller to Arctic: letters, 1846-52 MS7469/124-126

Rear-Admiral James Clark Ross (1800-1862), British Arctic explorer: letter and note, 1826, n.d. MS7404/13-14; see also Explorers and Travellers, General section.

Rear-Admiral Sir John Ross (1777-1856), British Arctic explorer: letters, 1828-53, n.d. MS7403; see also Thorndike Collection, MS7486

Royal Army Medical Corps Muniment Collection: miscellaneous material relating to Arctic exploration, 1870s-1970s, see Index RAMC

Robert Neal Rudmose-Brown (1879-1957), British naturalist: account of expedition to Weddell Sea and South Orkneys of Scottish Antarctic ship Scotia led by W.S. Bruce, 1903-4 MS4314

General Sir Edward Sabine F.R.S. (1788-1883), British Arctic explorer: copy by Sabine of material on North American birds in Travels through North and South Carolina by the traveller and ornithologist William Bartram (1739-1823), published by Bartram in 1792, 1813 MSAmer109; ornithological memoranda, compiled on his expeditions to the Arctic under Ross and Parry, 1818-20 MSAmer111; letters, 1832-64, n.d. MS7404/15-28; see also Thorndike Collection, MS7486.

Reverend William Scoresby F.R.S. (1789-1857), British Arctic expert and former whaler: letters, 1821-55, n.d. MS7404/29-32

Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912), British Antarctic explorer: see Denis Gascoigne Lillie and Sir Raymond Priestley, and Thorndike Collection, MS7486

Siberia: extracts from narrative of travels in, C19th PP/HO/D/D219

Thorndike collection: letters and ephemera relating to the Arctic and Antarctic, with most major figures represented by at least one letter. Particularly well represented are Albert Operti (fl.1896-1915), artist specialising in historical paintings depicting Arctic exploration, and member of the 1896-1897 expedition of Robert Peary (1856-1920); Charles Francis Hall (1821-1871), and members of the 1881-1884 Greely expedition. Also of interest are letters by Charles Francis Hall’s Inuit companions Ebierbing (“Joe”) and Tookolito (“Hannah”), MSS7481-90

Marthe Vogt (1903-1003): correspondence on dehydration and stress and cold stress experiments in Alaska of Evelyn Anderson (US National Aeronautics and Space Administration), 1966 PP/MLV/C/1/3/12

George Charles Wallich (1815-1899), marine biologist: papers, including material on Polar marine biology, 1860-98 MSS4962-70

Wellcome Archives: some material in archives of Historical Medical Museum, relating to Polar Exhibition of 1930, acquisition of Alaskan artefacts, photographs of medicine men in Siberia and neighbouring regions, 1915-16 WA/HMM; personal papers of Sir Henry Wellcome include material about the resettlement of the Metlakatla [Tsimshian] Native Americans of British Columbia on Annette Island in Alaska WA/HSW/ME

Wellcome Foundation: material relating to Wellcome’s own interests in exploration, including photographs, glass slides, cuttings, etc, as well as the firm’s supply of medicine chests to Polar expeditions, 1882-1975 WF

Air Marshal Sir Harold E Whittingham (1887-1983): material on survival in Arctic conditions PP/HEW