RASMUSSEN, Knud.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-24. First edition. The Fifth Thule expedition was to become the best-known and most significant of the seven undertaken by Rasmussen between 1912 and 1933. The findings document Inuit culture across Canada as far as Siberia, demonstrating a commonality in traditions and world-view among indigenous peoples across the Arctic. Relatively well-represented institutionally, it is notably scarce in commerce, we trace only four recorded appearances at auction.Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen (1879-1933) was a Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist, famed for being the first European to cross the North West Passage with a dog sled. On the expedition Rasmussen was accompanied by the explorer Peter Freuchen, ethnographer Kaj Birket-Smith, archaeologist Therkel Mathiassen, interpreter Jacob Olsen, and a group of Greenlanders whose practical knowledge was vital for the success of the trip. A small cabin called "Blæsebælgen" ("Bellows") became the expedition's permanent base in Hudson Bay and it was from there that Rasmussen set out with the Greenlanders Arnarulunnguaq and Qaavigarsuaq on a 18,000-kilometer trek. Travelling through "Pelly Bay, Shepherd Bay, and Wellington Strait, he reached a settlement near Cape Adelaide, where he traded ethnographic specimens, including many valuable amulets in exchange for locks of his own hair, which was thought to hold great powers of protection. The summer was spent on King William Land, where the Ne

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