Up for auction "Artic Explorer" Donald Macmillan Hand Signed 3X5 Card. This item is authenticated By Todd
Mueller Autographs and comes with their certificate of authenticity. ES - 1098 Donald
Baxter MacMillan (November
10, 1874 – September 7, 1970) was an American explorer, sailor, researcher and lecturer who
made over 30 expeditions to the Arctic during his 46-year career. He pioneered the use of
radios, airplanes, and electricity in the Arctic, brought back films and
thousands of photographs of Arctic scenes, and put together a dictionary of
the Inuktitut language. Born in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1874, MacMillan lived in Freeport, Maine after the deaths of both his parents
in 1883 (his father died while captaining a Grand Banks fishing schooner) and
1886 (his mother died suddenly), and was educated at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, graduating in 1898 with a degree in geology. He
later taught at Worcester Academy from
1903 to 1908. On March 18, 1935, MacMillan married Miriam Norton Look, the
daughter of his long-time friends Jerome and Amy Look. Though MacMillan at
first refused to let her accompany him north, Miriam soon convinced him of her
willingness and ability to participate in his Arctic travels. She participated
in several of his scientific and exploration trips to the Arctic and elsewhere.
After five years as a high school teacher, MacMillan caught the attention of
explorer and fellow Bowdoin graduate Robert E. Peary when he saved the lives of nine
shipwrecked people in two nights. Peary subsequently invited MacMillan to join
his 1908 journey to the North Pole. Although MacMillan himself had
to turn back at 84°29' on March 14 because of frozen heels, Peary allegedly
reached the Pole 26 days later. MacMillan spent the next few years traveling
in Labrador, carrying out ethnological studies among the Innu and Inuit.
He organized and commanded the ill-fated Crocker Land Expedition to
northern Greenland in 1913.
Unfortunately Crocker Land turned out to be a mirage. The expedition members were stranded until 1917, when
Captain Robert A. Bartlett of
the ship Neptune finally rescued them. On December 24, 1918,
shortly after the armistice which ended the First World War, MacMillan was
commissioned an ensign in the Naval Reserve Flying Corps.
MacMillan was 44 years old at the time, making him one of the oldest ensigns in
the history of the U.S. Navy. After the war, MacMillan began raising money for
another Arctic expedition. In 1921, the schooner Bowdoin—the namesake
of MacMillan's alma mater—was launched from East Boothbay, Maine and set sail for Baffin Island, where MacMillan and his crew spent the winter.
The expedition was notable for taking along an amateur radio operator, Don Mix, who used station WNP
("Wireless North Pole") to keep them in contact with the outside
world. In
1923 there was concern about a new ice age and he again sailed toward the North Pole aboard the Bowdoin, sponsored by
the National Geographical Society to
look for evidence of advancing glaciers. In
1925 MacMillan led a scientific expedition backed by the National Geographical
Society and financed primarily by the Chicago entrepreneur Eugene McDonald - which was accompanied by U.S. Navy
personnel and planes commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd. The planes were to be used for aerial surveys
of Baffin and Ellesmere Islands, investigation of the Greenland icecap, and
reconnaissance of previously unexplored areas of the Arctic Sea. The aerial
results proved to be disappointing due to severe weather conditions, unreliable
engines and inadequate navigational tools (although Byrd would use this
experience in preparing for his attempt to reach the North Pole the following
year). The expedition is noted for the successful demonstration of SW radio in
communications from the Arctic Region. In September 1926 MacMillan led a group
of explorers which included three women and five scientists to Sydney, Nova Scotia. The
team spent several months beforehand collecting flora and fauna in Labrador and Greenland. He believed it was possible that the ancient ruins
off Sculpin Island, twenty miles from Nain, Labrador, are the remains of
a Norse settlement 1,000 years old. On the side bordering
the mainland MacMillan found what he considered the vestiges of ten or twelve
houses. He estimated the age of the dwellings to be hundreds of years old
according to the lichens which partially covered their foundations. However
MacMillan could not say for certain if these had been built by Vikings. According to Inuit tradition
the "stone igloos" were constructed by men who came from the sea in
ships. Inuit called the site Tunitvik, meaning the place of
the Norseman. MacMillan said the strongest argument that the Sculpin
dwellings were of Viking origin was their resemblance to those he found in
Greenland the previous year. |