Born: 1897, Winnipeg, Canada Died: 1971, Seattle, USA
Originally Elizabeth Patricia Berger, “Bess” came from Winnipeg in Canada and married Russian-born businessman Samuel Magids in December 1914 (the 17-year-old Bess having lied about her age). Bess had met Samuel in Seattle through her brother, the wealthy mine owner Jacob Berger. The Magids couple moved to the Kotzebue region of north-west Alaska, where Sam ran the Magids Brothers Trading Company with his brother Boris. Their winters were often spent further south, particularly in Seattle and New York, but city girl Bess adapted well to her new way of life. She took an active role in the business and became an accomplished musher, earning herself the title “Queen of the Arctic”.
Bess first met Roald Amundsen in June 1922, when they were passengers on theSS Victoria from Seattle to Nome. According to Bess, Amundsen was alone in a cabin with its own bathroom, while she was in the upper bunk of a cabin shared with two companions. Roald, it seems, gallantly offered her the use of his cabin and moved in with someone else. A few weeks later they met again, when the expedition ship Maud arrived in Deering. It was here that Amundsen celebrated his fiftieth birthday, in the Magids Brothers trading post where, according to Odd Dahl, a scientist on the Maud, Roald also presented Bess with of one of the expedition’s gramophones.
Bess and Roald stayed in touch, exchanging greetings cards and meeting occasionally in New York. Then, in late 1927, Bess Magids came to Norway and stayed at Uranienborg for a couple of months. It was during this stay, it seems, that Amundsen proposed to her and they agreed to marry (for Bess’s version of events, see below). Since moving forward with life in Norway meant first leaving the husband she had been married to for 13 years, she returned to the U.S. in March 1928 to finalise the divorce. The papers were signed in April, and a few weeks later she was headed again for Norway.
A photomontage of Bess and Samuel Magids printed around the time of their divorce. Source: The Winnipeg Evening Tribune, May 5, 1928.
A newspaper photograph of Bess in 1968. Source: Pioneers of Alaska Archives.
Bess reached Oslo in early July 1928, two weeks after Amundsen had flown north from Tromsø on board Latham 47.02 in search of Umberto Nobile’s airship expedition. Roald’s nephew Gustav gave her the key to Uranienborg, where she stayed for a week or so, before heading for the fashionable resort hotel of Høsbjør. After about three weeks in Norway, with the survivors from Nobile’s party now rescued, Bess gave up hope for Roald’s safe return. Left with little choice but to return to Alaska, Bess first headed to Russia, where she paid a visit to her former sister-in-law. When she finally left Norway, Bess had with her some silverware and table linen from Amundsen’s home as souvenirs.
Back in Alaska, she returned to the trading post in Deering and the man she had previously left. But Samuel Magids fell ill not long afterwards. After six months in New York, he was taken to a hospital in Miami, where he died in March 1930, apparently with Bess by his side.
In 1931, she married Seattle sports journalist Art Chamberlin, with whom she had a daughter, Patricia, in 1933. A third marriage, to pilot John Milton Cross in 1937, ended in divorce 10 years later.
Bess continued to run the Magids chain of trading posts through this period, jointly with Sam’s brother Boris until he died in 1944, and then as sole owner. She subsequently settled in Kotzebue, where she ran the Arctic Adventures Club, offering accommodation and dining, before moving to Juneau and selling the Kotzebue premises to the local church.
In 1945, Bess was elected to the Alaska Territorial Legislature, serving two sessions in which she helped to pass the territory’s landmark Equal Rights Bill. This, and her many subsequent years of activity in politics and community affairs, left their mark on the Democratic Party of Alaska, who in 1988 established the Queen Bess Award in her name. The award is still made every two years.
Bess’s story here is both fascinating and valuable, but when it comes to her relationship with Amundsen, there is no way to reconcile the chronology she presents with the historical evidence. Essentially, she wishes her audience to believe that her intimacy with Amundsen began some years after her husband’s death, whereas Sam Magids actually died nearly two years after the explorer’s disappearance. Discounting the possibility of confusion after the passage of nearly forty years (in an otherwise confident and lucid account), we are left with discretion as Bess’s motive. This would, of course, be understandable on a purely personal level, but it has also been suggested that Bess still felt bound in some way by private agreements made in Norway that related somehow to the inheritance of Amundsen’s estate.
Part of the silverware that Bess brought from Uranienborg to Alaska in 1928 and later returned via the Norwegian-American couple Olav and Rosellen Lillegraven.
Bess also speaks in the interview of passing the Uranienborg silverware to a Norwegian-American couple in Juneau, after they had agreed to return it to Amundsen’s home (by then a museum). Some time later, in 1975, Olav and Rosellen Liillegraven brought the silverware safely home to Uranienborg.
Elizabeth Patricia Magids Chamberlain Cross died 14.4.1971.
Sources: Bomann-Larsen, Tor: Roald Amundsen : en biografi (1995) Hensley, William L. Iggiagruk: Fifty miles from tomorrow : a memoir of Alaska and the real people
One of the Netsilik Inuit Amundsen met during the expedition through the Northwest Passage, 1903-06. A tinted photograph of him hangs in Amundsen’s home.
The girls Nita and Camilla Carpendale went to Norway and Svartskog together with Amundsen in 1922 where they lived until 1924. The girls called Amundsen “Grandpa”.
Betty was one of the key women in Amundsen’s life. She was the nanny when he grew up, and when Amundsen moved to Svartskog, she joined him and moved into the gatehouse, which became “Betty’s house”.
Eivind Astrup became one of the world’s most experienced polar explorers of his time and a great role model for Roald Amundsen. He chose to end his life when only 24 years old.
Roald Amundsen had strong feelings for Kristine Elisabeth “Kiss” Bennett. She visited Uranienborg several times, but even though Amundsen transferred ownership of it to her, she never moved in.
The girls Nita and Camilla Carpendale went to Norway and Svartskog with Amundsen in 1922 and lived there until 1924. The girls called Amundsen “Grandpa”.
Sigrid Flood Castberg, often called “Sigg”, was one of the women Amundsen had a relationship with. But when Amundsen proposed, she was already married and wanted to wait, and when she was ready he wanted…
Håkon Hammer met Roald Amundsen in Seattle in 1921. He quickly became a collaborator and supporter, but was later named by Amundsen as one of the reasons for his personal bankruptcy.
Participated in the Maud expedition, but left the expedition in 1919, together with Peter Tessem. Both perished. What really happened to them is still unknown.
The Alaska Inupiaq called Elizabeth Magids “Queen of the Arctic”, Amundsen’s crew referred to her as “the mysterious lady”. Amundsen called her “Bess”. She went to live with Amundsen in Norway in 1928….
Participated as a research assistant on the Maud expedition, and as a meteorologist on the Norge expedition. Died on Umberto Nobile’s airship expedition in 1928.
One of the Netsilik Inuit Amundsen met during the expedition through the Northwest Passage 1903-06. A coloured picture of him decorates a window in Amundsen’s home.
Nobile was the airship engineer whom Amundsen criticized after the expedition in 1926. During the search for his wrecked expedition in 1928, Roald Amundsen disappeared.
Joined the Maud expedition after visiting the ship in Khabarovsk. Also participated in the Norge expedition, but was left out from the actual voyage across the Arctic Ocean.
One of the Netsilik Inuit Amundsen met during the expedition through the Northwest Passage 1903-06. A coloured picture of her hangs in Amundsen’s home.
One of the Netsilik Inuit Amundsen met during the expedition through the Northwest Passage 1903-06. A coloured picture of him decorates a door in Amundsen’s home.