E. B. Baldwin and the American–Norwegian discovery and exploration of Graham Bell Island, 1899

Abstract

This next paper in Polar Research’s series of not-formallyreviewed biographical/historical articles comes to us from anthropologist Pete Capelotti, who specializes in the history of exploration. In 1993, he conducted archaeological research on the base camps of the Andrée and Wellman polar balloon expeditions at Virgohamna, Danskøya, Svalbard. In this account of Walter Wellman’s attempt to reach the North Pole from Franz Josef Land in 1898–99, he examines the lone success in that effort, when one American and four Norwegians discovered and explored the last large island in the archipelago.