# 2220-23 - 1986 22c Arctic Explorers

U.S. #2220-23
1986 22¢ Polar Explorers

• Stamps honor four explorers of the North Pole
• Stamps include portraits, action scenes, and routes they took

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Set:  Polar Explorers
Value:  22¢, first-class rate
First Day of Issue:  May 28, 1986
First Day City:  North Pole, Alaska
Quantity Issued:  130,000,000
Printed by:  American Bank Note Company
Printing Method:  Photogravure
Format:  Panes of 50 in sheets of 200
Perforations:  11

Why the stamps were issued:  This block of four stamps was issued to honor a number of men who played key roles in discovering and unlocking the North Pole.

About the stamp designs:  This was the eighth US stamp issue designed by Dennis Lyall.  In addition to portraits and smaller scenes of the men honored, each stamp includes a small map showing the route they took on their expeditions.  The portraits and scenes were thoroughly researched to ensure accuracy, down to the correct types of ships and sleds.

Elisha Kent Kane sailed his tiny ship Advance northward – perhaps close enough to see the North Pole itself.  His stamp shows his ship sinking, after being damaged by ice floes.

Adolphus Greely endured devastating hardships to reach a point that was the closest any explorer got to the North Pole for 21 years.  His stamp pictures him and two helpers pulling a sled across the ice.

Robert E. Peary and Matthew Henson’s expeditionary assaults ended in triumph at the North Pole in 1909.  Their stamp illustrates the two men trekking northward, using a dog sled.  The 1959 Arctic Explorations (US #1128) stamp honored the 50^th anniversary of Peary’s arrival at the North Pole, but it didn’t picture him or include his name.

And Vilhjalmur Stefansson explored the Beaufort Sea – the last great unknown Arctic area.  His stamp shows him carrying a harpoon and dragging his seal catch across the ice.

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony for these stamps was held at the North Pole High School auditorium in North Pole Alaska, near Fairbanks. 

History the stamps represent: 

Elisha Kent Kane journeyed to the Arctic region to search for the lost Franklin Expedition.  Sir John Franklin was a popular British officer who traveled to the Arctic four times for exploration.  In 1945, he began a search for a “Northwest Passage” – a course from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, across the Arctic.  Franklin never returned from that last expedition. 

Twice Kane set out, searching for some sign of Franklin’s voyage.  During his journeys, Kane discovered the ice-free Kennedy Channel and mapped Smith Sound and Kane Basin, near the north end of Greenland.

After having to abandon his ice-locked ship in 1855, Kane led his crew on an 83-day journey through the frozen wastes until reaching a west Greenland settlement.  He returned home in October 1855.  Kane sailed to England to report the findings to Franklin’s widow, and then sailed to Cuba to try to recover his failing health.

Adolphus Washington Greely was born on March 27, 1844, in Newburyport, Massachusetts.  He served with the Union Army during the Civil War and later led a polar expedition.  Greely was the second person in history to receive a Medal of Honor for “lifetime achievement.”

Greely came from a poor family and saw the military as a way to move up in life.  When the Civil War broke out, he repeatedly tried to enlist but was turned away because of his age.  Greely was eventually enlisted and joined the 19^th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment.  He participated in some bloody battles during the war, including Antietam and Fredericksburg.  Wounded three times, he rose to the rank of sergeant and commanded the 81^st Colored Troops.  After the war, Greely led his troops to New Orleans during a yellow fever epidemic.

Greely was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 36^th Infantry in 1867.  In that role, he studied telegraphy and electricity with General Albert Meyer, who founded the Signal Corps.  Greely oversaw the installation of telegraph lines in the frontier and helped Meyer create the US Weather Bureau.  Through this work he became a knowledgeable meteorologist with an interest in storm systems.

In 1881, the US and 11 other nations organized the First International Polar Year.  It was a joint effort to study the polar regions to help them better understand Earth’s climate.  Greely volunteered to lead the American expedition and was joined by 24 soldiers who knew little about science or the sea but were hard workers.

The expedition departed from St. John’s, Newfoundland on July 7,  1881.  They sailed to Lady Franklin Bay where they built Fort Conger and established their meteorological station.  A party from the expedition also traveled farther north than any previous expedition, taking the honor away from the British who had held the record for two centuries.  One of the expedition’s organizers suggested they should send their ship away, so the men would feel more emboldened to explore inland, and Greely agreed.

However, resupply parties sent in 1882 and 1883 failed to reach them and they were ordered to Cape Sabine, where a rescue party would be waiting.  But there was no rescue party or supplies waiting for them.  After the first two rescue attempts failed, the Army gave up hope.  However, when Congress and the Army didn’t respond to her requests, Greely’s wife went to the press.  With the situation in the public spotlight, they sent another rescue mission led by Winfield Scott Schley.  This one finally reached them, but found only six men, including Greely, were still alive.  A doctor said they wouldn’t have lasted another 48 hours.  Greely had kept meticulous records of the expedition and wrote two books about it.

Greely was promoted to Chief of the Signal Corps in 1887.  During his 19 years in that role, he oversaw the military’s use of telegraphs, automobiles, and other new technologies.  He was placed in command of the Pacific Division at the Presidio of San Francisco in 1906.  That same year, he oversaw the relief efforts in the wake of the San Francisco earthquake.

After retiring in 1908, Greely represented the US Army at King George V’s coronation.  In 1935, he received a Medal of Honor “for his life of splendid public service.”  He was the second person to receive the honor for lifetime achievement, rather than an act of courage that risked his life.  Greely died on October 20, 1935.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was born on November 3, 1879, in Manitoba, Canada.  Stefansson’s parents had moved from Iceland to Manitoba two years before he was born.  After terrible flooding led to the deaths of two of his siblings, Stefansson’s parents moved the family to North Dakota in 1880. 

Stefansson went on to attend the Universities of North Dakota and Iowa before entering graduate studies in anthropology at Harvard.  He later taught for two years at Harvard.  Stefansson went to Iceland in 1904 to conduct archaeological research.  Then in 1906 he joined an Anglo-American Polar Expedition.  During that expedition he lived with the Inuit of the Mackenzie Delta.  From 1908 to 1912, he participated in a survey of the Central Arctic coasts of North America for the American Museum of Natural History. 

In 1913, Stefansson organized and directed the Canadian Arctic Expedition for the Government of Canada.  Lasting until 1916, the expedition used three ships to explore areas west of the Parry Archipelago.  In August of 1913, one of the ships, the Karluk, became trapped in ice.  Stefansson and a small party left the ship to hunt for food as provisions on board were inadequate.  While they were gone, the ship drifted with the ice, out of reach of the hunting party.  Over the next four and a half months, the ice carried the ship hundreds of miles west before it was crushed and sunk.  The remaining 25 people who were on board the vessel were stranded, and eleven died before they were rescued.

In 1921, Stefansson planned an expedition to Wrangel Island, north of Siberia.  He had sent four young men there in the hopes colonizing the area.  If successful, he believed it could be the base for an exploration company that offered tours to people interested in the Arctic island.  However, the four young men were unprepared and ill-equipped for their task and all died there.  Before that, they had raised the British flag, as Stefansson had hoped to claim the land for Britain.  The island was considered Russian territory however, so this sparked an international incident.

While this incident and the sinking of the Karluk had tainted his reputation, Stefansson is remembered for several discoveries during his travels.  He discovered the Brock, Mackenzie King, Borden, Meighen, and Lougheed Islands.  He also found the edge of the continental shelf.  Stefansson also expanded on the discoveries of Francis Leopold McClintock.  In 1920, he reported discovering a lost collection of supplies from the 1853 McClintock expedition of Melville Island.  Stefansson was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Founder’s Gold medal in 1921 for his life’s work.

Later in life, Stefansson became director of polar studies at Dartmouth College.  He also helped establish the US Army’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.  During his career, Stefansson served as president of the Explorer’s Club, was a member of the American Polar Society, and served as president of the History of Science Society.  Stefansson died on August 26, 1962.

Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was born on May 6, 1856, in Cresson, Pennsylvania.  Peary claimed to have been one of the first people to reach the North Pole.  Though his claim has been debated, historians generally agree he at least came very close.

After Peary’s father died in 1859, the family moved to Portland, Maine.  He went on to attend Bowdoin College, graduating with a civil engineering degree in 1877.  After school, Peary worked as a draftsman for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey.  Peary then joined the Navy in 1881 and was commissioned in the Civil Engineer Corps.  In the 1880s he was an engineer for the Nicaragua Canal.  Then in 1885, he decided he wanted to be the first person to reach the North Pole.

Peary embarked on his first Arctic expedition the following year.  He set out to travel across Greenland to see if it was an island or if it went all the way across the Arctic.  He and a partner made it almost 100 miles before running low on food and deciding to turn back.  At the time, it was the second-farthest distance traveled across Greenland’s ice sheet.  While he didn’t achieve his goal, the expedition gave him a greater understanding of what such a long trip would require.

In 1887, the Navy ordered Peary to survey routes for the proposed Nicaragua Canal.  While preparing for this trip he met clerk Matthew Henson.  Henson told Peary he’d spent six years as a cabin boy and Peary hired him as his personal valet.  Henson would become Peary’s field assistant and join him on all of his Arctic expeditions going forward.

Peary led another expedition to Greenland in 1891.  However, one of his legs was broken in an accident with the ship’s iron tiller and the expedition camped for six months waiting for him to recover.  His team became well acquainted with the area and he established his “Peary system” of utilizing support teams to set up supply caches along Arctic travel routes.  Once his leg was healed, they set out on their mission, eventually reaching Navy Cliff.  There they got the answer to their question – Greenland was indeed an island.  By the time they returned home they had traveled 1,250 miles.

Peary launched additional expeditions between 1898 and 1902.  His extensive mapping of uncharted areas was recognized with a number of awards from geographical societies.  Peary launched another well-funded expedition in 1905.  During that expedition, he was separated from his party and claimed to have reached the farthest point north of any explorer up to that time (87°06′) on April 21, 1906.  On the return journey, he discovered Cape Colgate.  Upon his return the National Geographic Society credited him with a farthest north honor, though no other societies did.

Peary launched his final expedition to the North Pole in 1908.  By early April 1909, he established Camp Jesup, which he believed was within three miles of the pole.  His assistant Henson scouted ahead to what they believed was the North Pole and returned claiming, “I think I’m the first man to sit on top of the world.”  When Peary returned home he discovered Frederick A. Cook, who had accompanied his 1891 expedition, claimed to have reached the pole in 1908.  In spite of this the National Geographic Society and Congress’ Naval Affairs Subcommittee credited Peary with reaching the North Pole.  He received the Thanks of Congress in 1911 and was promoted to rear admiral.

Peary retired from the Navy in 1911.  He served as president of The Explorers Club twice and chairman of the National Aerial Coast Patrol Commission.  Peary supported using planes to search for warships and submarines off the US coast and later proposed eight airmail routes that helped establish America’s airmail system.  He died on February 20, 1920.  Peary received a number of medals and honors during his life.  Doubts over his claim of reaching the pole have always persisted, however, and inspired numerous investigations of his diaries and even a recreation expedition.