Letters and photographs

Comprises the following:

MS.7485/1-20: Twenty letters to Operti, including material relating to his position as Secretary to the Arctic Club of America, 1885-1909 and n.d. Correspondents include: Henry Biederbick and Francis Long (b. 1852), survivors of the 1881-1884 Greely expedition (nos.1-2); Admiral Winfield Scott Schley (1839-1909), commander of the 1884 Greely relief expedition (no.3); John Wall Wilson of the 1853-1855 Kane expedition (no.4); Adolphus Greely (1844-1935), leader of the 1881-1884 U.S. expeiditon to Lady Franklin Bay (no.5); Amos Bonsall (1830-1915) of the 1853-1855 Kane expedition (no.6); W. H. Gilder (no.8); David Brainard (b. 1856) of the Greely expedition (no.10; also the subject of no.9); Evelyn Baldwin (1862-1933), leader of the 1901-1902 first Ziegler expedition (no.11); Dr. Frederick Cook (1865-1940) (no.12); Professor William H. Brewer (1828-1910), member of the 1894 Miranda expedition (no.13); John Bartlett, captain of the Windward on Peary's 1898-1902 expedition (no.15); Anthony Fiala (b. 1869), leader of the 1903-1905 second Ziegler expedition (no.16); the explorer and journalist Walter Wellman (1858-1934) (no.18); William Nindemann (d.1919), survivor of the 1879 Jeannette expedition led by George Washington De Long (1844-1881) (no.19; also the subject of no.7); Robert Peary (1856-1920) (no.20).

MS.7485/21-23: Letters written by Operti to Townsend W. Thorndike, 1911; no.21 listing letters from Polar explorers held by Operti, in answer to an advertisement placed by Townsend, and including a postcard of Operti's painting of Frederick A. Cook and an Arctic poppy; no.22 enclosing biographical information about subjects of Operti's paintings including several persons whose correspondence is included among nos.1-20, and Operti's signature cut from another letter.

MS.7485/24: Photograph of the "Kane pine", on which the explorer Elisha Kent Kane (1820-1857) is reputed to have carved his name, with accompanying poem by Anne Sibley Angell. 1910.

1885-1911

1 file

Database description transcribed from Richard Aspin and Christopher Hilton's typescript supplement to S.A.J Moorat's Catalogue of Western Manuscripts