Portrait photograph. Adolphus Washington Greely

Object reference: RA 0674

Height: 13.5 cm

Width: 10.5 cm

Materials: paper, glass, wood

Date: unknown

Adolphus Washington Greely (1844-1935) was an American polar explorer, best known for the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition (1881-84).

We don’t know when Amundsen acquired this photograph, but we do know that he and Greely were in contact, because Amundsen’s book collection includes a signed copy of Greely’s book, “Handbook of Alaska, its resources, products and attractions” (1909). The greeting on the book’s inside cover reads, “To my friend Captain Roald Amundsen, A W Greely.”
In the private archive left by Roald Amundsen and now kept at the National Library, there are three letters and a telegram from Greely to Amundsen, written in the years 1906, 1924 and 1926.