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In
2001, scientists use outboard motor
powered inflatable Zodiacs to explore the
Alaskan coast, replacing the canoes and
naphtha launches of 1899.
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The Harriman Alaska Expedition Retraced. On
July 22, 2001 over two dozen scientists, artists,
and writers left Prince Rupert, British Columbia on
the Harriman Expedition Retraced. The Clipper
Odyssey followed the itinerary of E. H.
Harriman's lavishly-outfitted George W.
Elder, sailing through the Inside Passage, the
Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutian Archipelago, and
northward through the Bering Sea. Four weeks later,
on August 20, the travelers made their final stop
in Nome. Join the trip via the Expedition
Log, and learn
more about the changes that have taken place on Alaska's
coast during the past century.
Smith College, in
collaboration with Florentine Films/Hott
Productions, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration, Alaska Geographic Alliance, and PBS
is pleased to bring you on an oceanic adventure to
one of the world's great wilderness
areas.
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The Harriman Alaska
Expedition of 1899. One day in March 1899,
Edward H. Harriman strode briskly into the office
of C. Hart Merriam, chief of the U.S. Biological
Survey. Without appointment or introduction,
Harriman launched into a grand plan for an
expedition along the coast of Alaska. Merriam,
skeptical, listened politely, and, when Harriman
left, checked the man's credentials. He soon
learned that E.H. Harriman was a highly respected
railway magnate, who had the financial resources
and the talent to realize such a grand scheme.
Within days, the two
men were working feverishly on the necessary
details: refitting of a ship, recruiting of a score
of the nation's leading scientists, and plotting a
route from Alaska's panhandle to the Bering Strait.
The expedition became famous even before the ship,
the S.S. George W. Elder, set sail. A crowd
of onlookers cheered the departure from Seattle on
May 31, 1899. Newspapers all over the world
featured the story on their front pages.
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A
map drawn by 1899 expedition participants
Gannett, Dellenbaugh, and Fuertes,
depicting the route of the S.S. George
W. Elder
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History has shown that
the Harriman Alaska Expedition lived up to all
expectations: genera and species new to science
were described, fossil species newly recorded,
natural history collections created, and the
Harriman Fiord surveyed for the first time. By any
standard, the world's scientific and environmental
portrait of Alaska was greatly enriched as a result
of the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition.
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In 1899 Edward Harriman assembled a distinguished
team of scientists and artists and took them on a
two-month survey of the Alaska Coast. The
scientists produced twelve
volumes of data
that took twelve years to compile.
In the Harriman
Expedition Retraced, scientists, naturalists and
artists are observing anew the sites visited by
Harriman's scouting parties a century ago. At the
heart of the new expedition is the 100-year
Harriman benchmark that can be used to assess our
relationship with the natural world and society's
current and future needs.
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"I never cared
for money except as power for work... What
I most enjoy is the power of creation,
getting into partnership with nature in
doing good, helping to feed man and beast,
and making everybody and everything a
little better and happier."
E.H. Harriman to John Muir aboard the
George W. Elder.
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