The Explorers Club Research Collections are home to more than a century’s worth of materials relevant to climate change that contemporary climate scientists and explorers use to inform their work. The 1881-1884 Lady Franklin Bay Expedition is one such example. The expedition team, led by Adolphus Greely, set out as part of an effort to study and document conditions above the Arctic Circle. Originally intended as a two-year mission, Lady Franklin Bay extended into its third year when multiple relief and supply vessels were unable to reach the team. Of the 25 men who began the expedition, only 6 survived.
Remarkably, after the surviving members of the expedition were rescued, this collection of documents detailing day-to-day official life and meteorological data remained intact in the Arctic until it was recovered on a subsequent expedition in 1899. This session will explore the ill-fated expedition, its surviving materials, and how explorers have used these materials to document and track our changing planet.
LACEY FLINT