thumb|Title page of a private souvenir album created collectively by the members of the Harriman Alaska Expedition.

The Harriman Alaska expedition explored the coast of Alaska for two months from Seattle to Alaska and Siberia and back again in 1899. It was organized by wealthy railroad magnate Edward Harriman. Harriman brought with him an elite community of scientists, artists, photographers, and naturalists to explore and document the Alaskan coast.

Genesis of the voyage

Edward Harriman was one of the most powerful men in America and controlled several railroads. By early 1899, he was exhausted. His doctor told him that he needed a long vacation. Harriman went to Alaska to hunt Kodiak bears. Rather than go alone, he took a scientific community to explore and document the coast of Alaska.

He contacted Clinton Hart Merriam, the head of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy at the United States Department of Agriculture, and one of the founders of the National Geographic Society. Harriman told Merriam that he would cover the expenses of scientists, artists, and other experts who would join the voyage. He asked Merriam to choose the scientific party.

Historians question why Harriman wanted to go to Alaska. Some think he was considering developing Alaskan resources. Some think he was considering building a railroad to the Alaskan territory. Some people at the time openly wondered if he was going to buy Alaska, or build a railroad bridge from Alaska to Siberia — a railroad around the world. Nothing seemed impossible for Edward H. Harriman.

Merriam held a flurry of meetings and sent many telegrams. He organized a broad range of experts: arctic experts, botanists, biologists and zoologists, geologists and geographers, artists, photographers, ornithologists and writers.

Harriman had the steamship SS George W. Elder refitted for the expedition. The remodeled ship featured lecture rooms, a library with over 500 volumes on Alaska, a stable for animals, taxidermy studios, and luxury rooms for the team. Some on the expedition referred to her as the George W. Roller, for its tendency to roll at sea, causing seasickness among the passengers.

Participants

thumb|300px|Expedition members posed on the beach at [[Cape Fox Village, Alaska, 1899]]

The members of the interdisciplinary team included many of the best American scientists, artists, and photographers of the time.

Arctic experts

  • William Brewer, naturalist
  • John Muir, naturalist
  • William Dall, paleontologist, geographer

Botanists

  • Frederick Coville, botanist
  • Thomas Kearney, botanist
  • De Alton Saunders, botanist
  • William Trelease, botanist
  • Bernhard Fernow, forester

Biologists and zoologists

thumb|D.G. Elliot, A.K. Fisher, and Robert Ridgway at Indian River, in Sitka, Alaska during the expedition

  • Wesley R. Coe, biologist
  • W. B. Ritter, Ph.D., biologist <Crustaceans, Preface, p. ix>
  • Daniel Giraud Elliot, zoologist
  • Clinton Hart Merriam, zoologist
  • William Emerson Ritter, biologist
  • Trevor Kincaid, entomologist
  • A. K. Fisher, ornithologist
  • Charles Keeler, ornithologist
  • Robert Ridgway, ornithologist
  • William H. Averell
  • Leon J. Cole, ornithologist

Geologists and geographers

  • W. B. Devereux, mining engineer
  • Benjamin Emerson, geologist
  • Henry Gannett, geographer
  • Grove Karl Gilbert, geologist
  • Charles Palache, geologist

Artists and photographers

  • Edward Curtis, photographer
  • Frederick Dellenbaugh, artist
  • Louis Agassiz Fuertes, bird artist
  • R. Swain Gifford, artist
  • Duncan George Inverarity, photographer (Curtis’ assistant)
  • Pillsbury, Arthur C., panorama & still photographer (rendezvoused with the ship June 1899 taking panoramas of the Muir Glacier, John Muir, and the ship)

Writers

  • George Bird Grinnell, expert on Native American culture (Editor, Forest and Stream)
  • John Burroughs, Author

Harriman also brought a medical team, a chaplain, hunters and packers, guides, and taxidermists. He brought his own family and his servants. Together, with the crew of the Elder, the total number of people on the ship was 126.

Voyage

By the end of May, the ship's guests and passengers had all arrived in Seattle. Newspapers around the world ran front-page stories about the trip. The Elder left Seattle on 31 May 1899. Cheering crowds saw them off.

John Burroughs, a best-selling nature author, was the official scribe of the expedition. He wrote much of Volume I, an overview of the trip. Volumes VI and VII, which were to be written by Merriam and feature mammals, never appeared. Perhaps Merriam simply couldn’t find the time with his other duties. Subsequent volumes were written by other expedition scientists or authors hired by Merriam to finish the work. While they often mentioned the beauty and grandeur of the Alaskan coast, the publications were mostly highly technical and written for scientists.

The first volume was published in 1901, and they continued to be published during the next few years. The Smithsonian republished the entire series in 1910, and the volumes are now available as free downloads.

  • Vol I: Narrative, Glaciers, Natives
  • Vol II: History, Geography, Resources
  • Vol III: Glaciers and Glaciation
  • Vol IV: Geology and Paleontology
  • Vol V: Cryptogamic Botany
  • Vol VIII: Insects, Part 1
  • Vol IX: Insects, Part 2
  • Vol X: Crustaceans
  • Vol XI: Nemerteans, Bryozoans
  • Vol XII: Enchytraeids, Tubicolous Annelids
  • Vol XIII: Land and Fresh Water Mollusks
  • Vol XIV: Monograph of the Shallow-water Starfishes of the North Pacific Coast from the Arctic Ocean to California, Part 1. Text and Part 2. Plates

Accomplishments

The expedition claimed to have discovered some 600 species that were new to science, including 38 new fossil species. They charted the geographic distribution of many species. They discovered an unmapped fjord and named several glaciers. Gilbert’s work on glaciers represented new thinking in the field. But, over the course of the trip and afterward, the two became friends. Years later, Muir recruited Harriman to help with governmental lobbying on National Park legislation.

References

  • Short chronology
  • 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.
  • Smithsonian Institution Archives, Harriman Alaska Expedition Collection, 1899-1900