Letter from John T. Crawford to Vilhjalmur Stefansson, with notes by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, 28 November 1923

An island off the coast of Siberia, Russia. This 2,900-square-mile expanse has been claimed at various times by Canada and Russia. Wrangel never supported an Indigenous human population, but it was a refuge for polar explorers awaiting rescue. Others attempting to settle the Island died, undone by their naiveté and Anglo-American hubris.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was born on November 3, 1879, in Arnes, Manitoba, Canada to Icelandic immigrants. In 1881, the family moved to North Dakota. Without a formal primary education Stefansson entered the University of North Dakota's preparatory department in 1898, but was expelled in 1902, for allegedly inciting a protest within the student body. He then enrolled at the University of Iowa from which he graduated with a B.A. in 1903. After a year of studying theology at the Harvard Divinity School he joined the Anglo-American Polar Expedition, which was under the auspices of Harvard and the University of Toronto, in 1906. In 1908, he participated in the Stefansson-Anderson Expedition, which was financed by the American Museum of Natural History and the Canadian government. The expedition took him to northern Alaska where for four years he explored the area on his way to Victoria Island where he planned to study an isolated group of Inuit who still used primitive tools and had strong Caucasian features. In 1913, he set out again on the Canadian Arctic Expedition which explored sea and islands north of Alaska and the Canadian mainland. Even though the expedition discovered Brock, Borden, Meighen and Lougheed Islands, it was overshadowed by the tragic sinking of one of the expedition's ships, the "Karluk," in pack ice and the subsequent deaths of many of its crew. It was also the last expedition Stefansson physically participated in as he began to focus his energy on the lucrative lecture circle and the writing of books on arctic subjects including "My Life with the Eskimo." In 1921, he organized the ill-fated Wrangel Island Expedition, the failure of which caused the death of all but one of its participants. In 1922, he began what was to become a lifelong project; the creation of a comprehensive polar library. In 1927, he participated in the Bellevue "Meat-Diet" experiment which required him to live on an all meat diet for one year. Being convinced of the benefits of such a diet, based on his experience living among the Eskimos earlier in his life, he continued to endorse and live by this diet even after completion of the experiment. From 1932-1954, Stefansson became an advisor on northern operations for Pan American Airways. He also performed a variety of jobs for the United States Government such as advisory work for the Coordinator of Information, authoring guide books and manuals on the arctic, as well as serving as a consultant on diet, clothing and other fields related to living in the arctic.

From 1937-1939, Stefansson was the president of the Explorers Club and in 1941, he married Evelyn Schwartz Baird who became his assistant as well as his wife. In 1946, he was contracted by the United States Office of Naval Research to create a comprehensive work on the arctic entitled the 'Encyclopedia Arctica.' Stefansson and dozens of other writers worked on the project for five years. However, the US government abruptly canceled the contract in 1951. In 1947, the Stefansson's moved to Vermont and Stefansson became an Arctic Consultant at Dartmouth College. He also sold his extensive arctic library to the college, but he and his wife remained involved in its upkeep.

Stefansson died of a stroke in Hanover, New Hampshire on August 26, 1962.

Born Allan Rudyard Crawford in Toronto, Crawford was aged 20 at the start of the 1921 Wrangel Island expedition. He was in official command of the expedition, partly because of his status as a Canadian citizen and British subject. At the time he was hired for the expedition, he was studying geology, paleontology, chemistry, and mineralogy at the University of Toronto. One of Crawford’s professors had given him a letter from Stefansson, who had written to the university present searching for another member for the expedition. Crawford wrote to Stefansson introducing himself in April 1921, and Stefansson eventually hired him for his strong background in the sciences. 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. On January 28, 1923, Crawford, along with Milton and Galle, tried to cross the frozen Chukchi Sea to Siberia and travel some 90 miles to get help. They were never seen again. Because he was a Canadian Citizen, Crawford was the only member of the expedition to be officially honored by the Canadian government.

Professor of mathematics at the University of Toronto. Father of Allan Crawford, member of the Wrangel Island Expedition of 1921.

President of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, 1907-1924. Prominent supporter of Canadian business and the arts.

Vice President of the Stefansson Artic Exploration and Development Company.
Managing Director of the Taylor Engineering Company.
Prominent engineering contractor and entrepreneur in British Columbia, Canada. Most famous for the Lion's Gate Bridge.