Copy of a letter from Vilhjalmur Stefansson to Joseph-Fidèle Bernard, 26 March 1924

The largest city in the United States. The home city of Vilhjalmur Stefansson in the 1920s.

An island off the coast of Siberia, Russia.

Hometown of E. Lorne Knight

Town that the Wrangel Island expedition and relief expedition sailed from.

The second largest city in Canada.

Born William Stephenson in 1879 in Manitoba, Canada, Stefansson was an explorer, anthropologist, public intellectual, and policy adviser whose life work included several important expeditions to the Arctic. He began planning an expedition to Wrangel Island somewhat secretly beginning in the fall of 1920, hoping to definitively claim Wrangel Island for Canada or Britain. As his active exploring career had already ended, he stayed in Canada while the team went to Wrangel Island. Ill-equipped and inexperienced, all four men hired by Stefansson died in 1923; Ada Blackjack was the sole survivor of the trip. Stefansson had a significant association with Dartmouth College, beginning in the 1920s and 30s when he was an occasional lecturer. In 1947, he moved to Vermont with his wife, working on the Encyclopedia Arctica and becoming an Arctic Consultant to the College. Though the Encyclopedia Arctica project was canceled in 1951, its unpublished chapters and associated materials are now housed in the Rauner Library as part of the Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration. Stefansson continued teaching and writing at Dartmouth until his death in 1962 in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he is now buried.

Captain of the boat, The Teddy Bear. Made a failed attempt in 1922 to reach Wrangel Island.

Lead the relief expedition to Wrangel Island in 1923.

Father of E. Lorne Knight and Joseph Knight. Husband to Georgia.

Lorne Knight (born Errol Lorne Knight) was second-in-command on the 1921 Wrangel Island Expedition; he was age 28 at its start. Of all the members, he had the most experience in the North, and served as the “unofficial authority.” From McMinnville, Oregon, Knight met Stefansson in late 1915 while traveling on the Polar Bear with Captain Louis Lane. While the Polar Bear was anchored a few miles off of Canada’s Cape Kellet, its crew spotted Stefansson, who had been traveling on foot in the Arctic. For the next four years, Knight was educated by Stefansson in Arctic survival. Later, he joined Stefansson and Maurer on the 1921 spring Chautauqua circuit. That year, Stefansson also asked Knight to be a member of his second Wrangel Island expedition. The team arrived on Wrangel Island on September 15, 1921, and over the following years suffered immensely, facing harsh Arctic conditions as resources ran dangerously low. After returning from a short solo trip in July 1922, Knight steadily grew weaker and more ill. He died June 23, 1923, while the other men were traveling to get help.

Nome, Alaska, businessman. Owned a photography studio with his brothers. Associate of Stefansson.

Associate of Captain Bernard in Ketchikan, Alaska?