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The place names of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa: the Wellman polar expedition, 1898–1899

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2014

P.J. Capelotti  and
M. Forsberg
P.J. Capelotti
Affiliation:
Social Sciences Division, Penn State University, Abington College, Abington, PA 09001, USA ([email protected])
M. Forsberg
Affiliation:
Västerängsvägen 12, 432 96 Åskloster, Sweden
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Abstract

In 1898–1899, the first American polar expedition to Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa [Franz Josef Land], under the leadership of journalist Walter Wellman, added at least forty place names to the islands, of which many survive on modern charts. These include the main discovery of the expedition, the large island named for Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell, then president of the National Geographic Society, along with numerous smaller islands, capes and waterways. The origins of several of these names are now confirmed using recently discovered notes in the papers of Wellman's brother and business manager, Arthur Wellman. They demonstrate the close relationship between Walter Wellman and the political, financial and scientific elites of turn-of-the-century Chicago, Illinois, Washington, D.C., and the state of Ohio, associations derived from Wellman's profession as a Washington correspondent for Chicago newspapers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Polar Record , Volume 51 , Issue 6 , November 2015 , pp. 624 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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