POSTED BY FRAN HENNESSEY Led by Elisha Kent Kane, M.D., the Second Grinnell Expedition (1853-1855) continued on-going searches for the missing Franklin Expedition. According to Kane’s writings in Arctic Explorations, his approach was to take a course that should “lead most directly to the open sea of which he had inferred the existence” and to… Continue reading Kane’s Mysterious Waters: Transient Polynyas
Category: Persons Represented
After Icebergs with a Painter: An Inspiration for Bradford’s 1869 Voyage
POSTED BY JOANNE SEYMOUR In Arctic Regions, William Bradford chronicled his 1869 voyage to the Arctic along Greenland’s coast, & cites two books that initially inspired his exploration for art’s sake: Lord Dufferin’s Letters from High Places and Elisha Kent Kane’s Arctic Explorations in the years of 1853, ’54, ’55. At least one other book… Continue reading After Icebergs with a Painter: An Inspiration for Bradford’s 1869 Voyage
LeGrand Lockwood
POSTED BY MICHAEL LAPIDES William Bradford dedicated Arctic Regions to the memory of businessman and financier LeGrand Lockwood. Bradford stating that Lockwood was “widely known for his generous patronage of the arts and for his acts of unselfish benevolence.” Lockwood was, as described by Steve Lubar in a talk delivered at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, an enthusiastic adopter of… Continue reading LeGrand Lockwood
Faces in the Crowd
POSTED BY RUSSELL POTTER Among the lesser-known signatures in the Bradford scrapbooks is that of Lucette E. Barker, an artist in her own right, whose connections with other London artists and writers were considerable. Her brother-in-law, Tom Taylor, was the editor of Punch, as well as (somewhat less fortunately) the playwright whose play, “Our American… Continue reading Faces in the Crowd
Charles Francis Hall
POSTED BY RUSSELL POTTER Charles Francis Hall may well have been the most passionate — and most peculiar — of all nineteenth-century Arctic explorers. He was not born to the sea — in fact, for the first half of his life, he was an ordinary man, a businessman, a family man firmly secured to the… Continue reading Charles Francis Hall
Surviving Hayes’ Arctic Boat Journey, Part 2 of 2: Inuk Kalutunah
POSTED BY FRAN HENNESSEY In the brig Advance, Elisha Kent Kane, MD led the Second Grinnell Expedition to search for Sir John Franklin and his men. During August, 1854 with the ship fixed in ice, Kane sent Isaac I. Hayes, MD south from Rensselaer Harbor to reach civilization to arrange rescue. An Angekok to his… Continue reading Surviving Hayes’ Arctic Boat Journey, Part 2 of 2: Inuk Kalutunah
Surviving Hayes’ Arctic Boat Journey, Part 1 of 2: Johan Petersen
POSTED BY FRAN HENNESSEY In the brig Advance, Elisha Kent Kane, MD led the Second Grinnell Expedition to search for Sir John Franklin and his men. During August, 1854 with the ship fixed in ice, Kane sent Isaac I. Hayes, MD south from Rensselaer Harbor to reach civilization to arrange rescue. Johan Carl Christian Petersen,… Continue reading Surviving Hayes’ Arctic Boat Journey, Part 1 of 2: Johan Petersen
Wet Plate Collodion Photography
POSTED BY MICHAEL LAPIDES Wet plate collodion photography is a featured element of the Arctic Visions exhibit. Specifically the work accomplished by photographers John L. Dunmore and George Critcherson while aboard the Panther in 1869. This is Quinn Jacobson’s short video about how to prepare and expose wet plate collodion negatives.
Dr. Elisha Kent Kane
POSTED BY RUSSELL POTTER Looming large behind all of the polar spectacles of Bradford and Dunmore and Critcherson, as well as the career of Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, there stands the figure of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, by far the most famous Arctic explorer of his day. He was the ship’s surgeon on the First… Continue reading Dr. Elisha Kent Kane
“An Arctic Boat Journey” 1st edition, signed presentation copy
POSTED BY FRAN HENNESSEY Person Represented: Henry Oscar Houghton, publisher. After purchasing an 1860, 1st edition of An Arctic Boat Journey in the Autumn of 1854 by Isaac I. Hayes, I discovered two pages were stuck together. Upon separation, I discovered that this book was Dr. Hayes’ presentation copy to publisher Henry Oscar Houghton and… Continue reading “An Arctic Boat Journey” 1st edition, signed presentation copy
