Follow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriman_Alaska_expedition
The Harriman Alaska expedition explored the coast of Alaska for two months from Seattle to Alaska and Siberia and back again In 1899. It was organized by wealthy railroad magnate Edward Harriman. Harriman brought with him an elite community of scientists, artists, photographers, and naturalists to explore and document the Alaskan coast.
The genesis of the voyage
Edward Harriman was one of the most powerful men in America and controlled several railroads. By early 1899, he was exhausted. His doctor told him that he needed a long vacation. Harriman went to Alaska to hunt Kodiak bears. Rather than go alone, he took a scientific community to explore and document the coast of Alaska.
He contacted Clinton Hart Merriam, the head of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy at the United States Department of Agriculture, and one of the founders of the National Geographic Society. Harriman told Merriam that he would cover the expenses of scientists, artists, and other experts who would join the voyage. He asked Merriam to choose the scientific party.
Historians question why Harriman wanted to go to Alaska. Some think he was considering developing Alaskan resources. Some think he was considering building a railroad to the Alaskan territory. Some people at the time openly wondered if he was going to buy Alaska, or build a railroad bridge from Alaska to Siberia — a railroad around the world. Nothing seemed impossible for Edward H. Harriman.
Merriam held a flurry of meetings and sent many telegrams. He organized a broad range of experts: arctic experts, botanists, biologists and zoologists, geologists and geographers, artists, photographers, ornithologists and writers.
Harriman had the steamship SS George W. Elder refitted for the expedition. The remodeled ship featured lecture rooms, a library with over 500 volumes on Alaska, a stable for animals, taxidermy studios, and luxury rooms for the team. Some on the expedition referred to her as the George W. Roller, for its tendency to roll at sea, causing seasickness among the passengers.
Participants
Expedition members posed on the beach at Cape Fox Village, Alaska, 1899
The members of the interdisciplinary team included many of the best American scientists, artists, and photographers of the time.
Arctic experts
William Brewer, naturalist
John Muir, naturalist
William Dall, paleontologist, geographer
Botanists
Frederick Coville, botanist
Thomas Kearney, botanist
De Alton Saunders, botanist
William Trelease, botanist
Bernhard Fernow, forester
Biologists and zoologists
Wesley Coe, biologist
Daniel Elliot, zoologist
Clinton Hart Merriam, zoologist
William Emerson Ritter, biologist
Trevor Kincaid, entomologist
A. K. Fisher, ornithologist
Charles Keeler, ornithologist
Robert Ridgway, ornithologist
William H. Averell
Leon J. Cole, ornithologist
Geologists and geographers
W. B. Devereux, mining engineer
Benjamin Emerson, geologist
Henry Gannett, geographer
Grove Karl Gilbert, geologist
Charles Palache, geologist
Artists and photographers
Edward Curtis, photographer
Frederick Dellenbaugh, artist
Louis Agassiz Fuertes, bird artist
R. Swain Gifford, artist
D. G. Inverarity, photographer (Curtis’ assistant)
Writers
George Bird Grinnell, expert on Native American culture (Editor, Forest and Stream)
John Burroughs, Author
Harriman also brought a medical team, a chaplain, hunters and packers, guides, and taxidermists. He brought his own family and his servants. Together, with the crew of the Elder, the total number of people on the ship was 126.
The Voyage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriman_Alaska_expedition#The_Voyage
Accomplishments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriman_Alaska_expedition#Accomplish...