Beschreibung:

JAN MAYEN EXPEDITION, 1911 A collection of typescripts, letters, transcripts, photographs and other material relating to the expedition, assembled by Baron A. Klinckowström (expedition zoologist) and William Bellows (alpinist), and comprising: Letter book of A. Klinckowström, 26 October 1909 - 17 June 1911, concerning the planning of the Jan Mayen expedition, and comprising autograph transcripts of 15 letters by Klinckowström, and letters by expedition leader J. Foster Stackhouse (10 autograph letters signed, 4 letters signed, one autograph note signed, and 2 autograph receipts signed), Walter Friedeberg (ornithologist on expedition, 4 letters), and letters of advice from J.V. Havsteen and Carl Höepfner (2) in Iceland, and from Aage Berlème in Copenhagen, with a printed prospectus, with five photographs of arctic subjects and a postcard from Klinckowström to Bellows (loosely inserted); altogether approximately 71 leaves, 4to , black roan. Provenance : presentation inscription of Klinckowström to William Bellows (alpinist on the expedition), 11 October 1923, with a further inscription by Bellows recording his inability to induce the Royal Geographical Society to accept the volume as a gift Typescript copy of A. Klinckowström, 'With Britons & Teutons to Jan Mayen, 1911', in English, apparently a copy prepared by W. Bellows, and including his annotations in typescript and manuscript, 108 pages, 4to , with a body of illustrative material mostly pasted in, comprising: PHOTOGRAPHS, including a series of approximately 36 photographs of the expedition, showing views of the Matador (2), crew members (14), Jan Mayen (2), and various scenes in the Faroes and Iceland (8), as well as 'Twenty views of Jan Mayen given to me [i.e. William Bellows] by Dr Jean Charcot of the French National Antarctic Expedition taken by him 1902 and 1912', 9 photographs by J.M. Wordie, leader of the Cambridge University Expedition to Jan Mayen, August 1921, and six other arctic photographs, and reproductions of caricatures of 1911 crew members by S. Hepworth (12); DRAWINGS, including 3 of the coast of Jan Mayen by Bellows, and one satirical sketch, unsigned, of 'Bentham senior on night duty', fast asleep; autograph SIGNATURES of expedition members, on one leaf, 4to ; and LETTERS, including A. Klinckowström (11 letters and a postcard to Bellows), J. Foster Stackhouse (letter signed and autograph receipt), Jean Charcot (6, referring to Jan Mayen, 1913), Adrian de Gerlache (6, one referring to the construction of the Polaris [later the Endurance ]), William Bellows (to his mother on board Matador before setting off) and nine others; and printed ephemera and press-cuttings, altogether approximately 171 pages, 4to , black roan, lettered in gilt on upper cover and spine (a little worn and scuffed). Provenance : William Bellows (card pasted to front free end paper) with a further unillustrated copy of the typescript, and a printed book, Stray papers by William Bellows, 1937 (privately printed), which includes a description of the Jan Mayen expedition. As is clear from the letter book of Baron Klincowström, the original plans of expedition leader J. Foster Stackhouse had been for an exploration of the island of Mevenklint. By the beginning of 1911, however, attention had shifted to Jan Mayen Island (approximately half-way between Iceland and Spitzbergen), which had previously only been surveyed by the Austrian Polar Year Expedition of 1882-83, and boasted an unclimbed mountain, the Meerenberg. The letters chart the planning of the expedition, with routine questions of equipment and timing, as well as the gathering of expedition members, which were eventually to include Klinckowström's son Harald, and three German specialists. Klinckowström's account of the expedition (here in his own idiosyncratic English translation) makes no attempt to disguise its hopelessly shambolic nature. The original choice of vessel, a wooden ship suited to Arctic waters, had to be discar