[Album of photographs of whaling and trading voyages.]

£6,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An excellent, substantial album compiled by Aaron Levy, who was attached to Christian Theodore Pedersen’s (1876-1969) expeditions in the 1920s. Pedersen was born in Norway and was just 17 when he embarked on his first whaling voyage. His first command was of the schooner Challenge in 1908 which overwintered on Herschel Island, and he later assisted Vilhjalmur Stefansson with the Canadian Arctic Expedition. His main employment was as a whaler and fur trader, which occupy much of the material here. After nearly ten years working for the H. Liebes Company, he set up business on his own under the name of Northern Whaling and Trading Company with the schooner Ottillie Fjord . He set up trading posts through the Kitikmeot region and leased small schooners to trappers. This album documents those years and opens with images of ships belonging to H. Liebes Company, several under Pedersen’s command. M.S. Hermann (at St Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea); M.S. Nanuk (waiting for the ice to open near Barrow); M.S. Patterson , and M.S. Nigalik; plus the wreck of M.S. Arctic , crushed by the ice near Point Barrow in 1924. We see shots of Unalaska, Cliff dwellers on King Island, Herschel Island, and Diomede Island (both Russian and American). In addition, there is much on whaling, hunting walrus, a dramatic image of blasting through sea ice in the Bering Sea, and gruesome shots of naval discipline. Turning to the Yukon, we see much centred on the fur trade, shots of hunting of caribou, moos

• Year: 1930

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.