Chart Exhibiting the Discoveries of the American Arctic Expedition…

The enduring mystery of Sir John Franklin’s lost Arctic expedition spurred numerous search efforts, among them the Second American Grinnell Expedition, led by Elisha Kent Kane aboard the brig Advance from 1853 to 1855. Tasked with penetrating the farthest reaches of the Arctic, Kane’s team pushed relentlessly north of Baffin Bay through Smith Strait and the Kennedy Channel, charting vast new territories along the coasts of Greenland and Ellesmere Island (Grinnell Land). Ultimately, the Advance became hopelessly ice-bound, forcing a dramatic and perilous retreat by sledge and boat with the help of local Inuit tribes. Though Franklin was not found, the ship was lost, and three men died, the expedition captured the public imagination and was the furthest northward advance into the Arctic at the time. This pair of maps by Kane was published in 1856 by the Government Printing Office as part of a report to the U.S. Senate. The smaller sheet, about 8″ x 11.25″, provides an overview of the epic route via sea and land. A handful of important landmarks are noted, including several ‘Esquimaux’ villages, the winter quarters, food caches, etc. The second map, a fold-out measuring 16″ x 19″, shows the northernmost extremes of the journey on a larger scale. The tracks of several individual efforts are shown and labeled in the upper left. Also of note is the (highly seasonal) open Polar Sea – one of the lasting and most important discoveries of the trip.