Harriman Alaska Expedition

The Harriman Alaska Expedition was an expedition organized by E. H. Harriman, a railway magnate and financier, to explore the coastal waters and territory of Alaska in 1899.

During this expedition, from May 31 until July 30, over 5,000 photographs were taken to document its progress and findings. A great deal of scientific information was published as a result of the trip. For example, College Fjord was discovered during the expedition.

Harriman chartered a luxury ship, the "George W. Elder", for a scientific vacation to Alaska. For the purpose of studying flora and fauna of Alaska, Harriman invited prominent scientists of the period to accompany him, including John Burroughs, John Muir, George Bird Grinnell, Clinton Hart Merriam, G.K. Gilbert, Edward S. Curtis, William Healey Dall, and William Emerson Ritter.

Harriman also brought an advanced and outsized phonograph upon which he like to play loud music during his arrival at the small towns and outposts he visited. He also used this modern contraption to record a speech in the dying Eyak language, creating one of the few extant recording of this language as it was spoken. This recording cylinder was lost for many years, but found by Anthony Seeger of the Indiana University Archive of Traditional Music. He brought the cylinder to a meeting in Sapporo, Japan in 1985 and the language was recognized by linguist Michael Krauss, even though it was being played backwards.

The Harriman expedition was said to have engaged in "wholesale looting" of First Nations artifacts at Cape Fox, including removal of seven or eight totem poles which were distributed to various universities and museums. At that time, federal grand juries were willing to bring indictments against persons who without purchase or permission took totem poles and other relics from First Nations villages. Although no charges seem to have been brought against the Harriman expedition, charges were pressed a short time later (but settled out of court) against another excursion from Seattle for removal of the famous Pioneer Place totem pole. [Newell, Gordon R., ed., "H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest", at 46 n.1, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966]

Notes

ources

*Goetzmann, William H. and Kay Sloan, 1982. "Looking Far North: The Harriman Expedition to Alaska", 1899. New York: Viking.
*Grinnell, George Bird, 1901. "The Natives of the Alaska Coast Region" [C. Hart Merriam, ed.] Volume 1:137-183. New York: Doubleday, Page and Co.
*Krauss, Michael E. "A History of Eyak Language Documentation and Study: Frederice de Laguna in Memorium". Arctic Anthropology 43(2) 2006.

External links

* [http://www.pbs.org/harriman/1899/chronology.html Short chronology]
* [http://content.lib.washington.edu/harrimanweb/index.html University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899] 254 photographs from 1899 of Edward Harriman's scientific expedition to Alaska, including images of Alaskan Native Americans and their villages, scenic views of the coastline, glaciers and Alaskan towns.