Note from Andrea: This post was originally supposed to go up in April, but as many of you know, my husband was hospitalized for Crohn’s Disease around that time. While we didn’t know it at the time, the entire ordeal lasted two months and involved two operations. And towards the end of that period, I started a six-week condensed summer course. It is only thanks to the help of many people that I was able to keep everything going. I’d like to especially thank Anne Dance, Catherine Ulmer, Stacey Zembrzycki, Claire Campbell, Danielle Lorenz, Krystal Raven, Krista McCracken, Jenny Ellison, Jessica DeWitt, Maddie Knickerbocker, Shannon Stettner, Lynne Marks, and Sarah York-Bertram for their support during this entire ordeal. I would also like to thank all of the wonderful people who reached out to me during this time, including all of the lovely people who asked how Lee and I were doing at the CHA. Special thanks to the wonderful contributors who moonlit on the blog while I was away, including Sarah York-Bertram, the CHA Reads contributors (Krista McCracken, Ian Jesse, Carly Ciufo, Dan Horner, and Carmen Nielson), Rachel Bryant, Andrew Nurse, Heather Green, and Shannon Stettner. And of course, none of this would have been possible without Stephanie Pettigrew, who basically took over managing the website while I was away. Seriously, you folks are all awesome, and I will never be able to fully express my gratitude. Finally, extra special thanks to Stéphanie Verner, Sylvie Raymond, and Karen Ryan for being so patient with this long-overdue blog post! As for Lee, he’s been home for a month now, is recovering well, and is overwhelmed by your good thoughts.
I’ve always been fascinated by historical mysteries. I was the history dork who actually signed up for archaeology classes in elementary school (such as they were), and spent hours pouring over mysteries like Tutankhamun’s curse and the fate of the Maya. The Franklin Expedition was one of the those mysteries, and, like so many others, I never thought it would be solved.
If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that we have extensively covered both the rediscovery of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, as well as the work done to bring the story of the Franklin Expedition to life in museum exhibitions in the UK and Canada. So when I was offered the chance to interview the curator of the new Franklin Expedition exhibit (say that ten times fast) at the Canadian Museum of History, Dr. Karen Ryan, you won’t be surprised to learn that I jumped on this opportunity. As is the case with the blog post on the Hockey exhibition, this blog post is the result of my conversation with Ryan, and provides a behind-the-scenes look at the Franklin Expedition exhibit and Ryan’s work on the project.
*Special thanks to Stephanie Pettigrew, Stéphanie Verner, Sylvie Raymond, and the Canadian Museum of History for arranging this interview, Jenny Ellison for her assistance and fantastic suggestions for questions, and Karen Ryan for agreeing to speak with me!
**Please note that all images are courtesy of the Canadian Museum of History, and used with permission.
Karen Ryan joined the Museum’s staff in 2010, and her curatorial responsibilities touch on the prehistory and history of Canada’s North. She collaborates on land claims and repatriation requests, and is currently researching the ill-fated Northwest Passage expedition commanded by Sir John Franklin in 1845.
Dr. Ryan has conducted archeological fieldwork throughout Nunavut, Nunavik and Nunatsiavut, as well as in Newfoundland, and has published articles on the social and cultural prehistory of the Canadian Arctic, traditional ideology and shamanism, hunter-gatherer domestic architecture and the application of contemporary technologies to archaeological practices.
Dr. Ryan holds an Honours BA in Anthropology and History from Memorial University of Newfoundland, an MA in Anthropology from McMaster University and a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto.
Exhibit Breakdown
Officially titled “Death in the Ice – The Mystery of the Franklin Expedition,” the exhibit is on show at the museum from March 2nd to September 30th, 2018. The exhibit was created in partnership with the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, Parks Canada, the Government of Nunavut, and the Inuit Heritage Trust, and brings together more than 200 objects from all five institutions/organizations.
The exhibit itself is divided into eight parts, as follows:
- Zone 1 begins with Inuit history and culture, with information on the Inuit oral histories of the Franklin Expedition.
- Zone 2 provides a historical overview of 400 years of European attempts to find the Northwest Passage, beginning with John Cabot and Martin Frobisher, and ending with last expedition before Franklin.
- Zone 3 depicts everyday life on board the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, with a particular emphasis on the scientific aspects of the expedition (collecting botanical and animal specimens), on how they became icebound, and Inuit history of the area.
- Zone 4 focuses on role that the Franklin Expedition played in the British imagination, and early search efforts and results.
- Zone 5 begins with the discovery of some of the skeletons of the Franklin crew, and explores some of the prevailing theories about what happened to Franklin’s crew, including a special section devoted to the issue of cannibalism.
- Zone 6 tells the story of the rediscovery of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in 2014 and 2016.
- Zone 7 is all about the crew of the Franklin Expedition.
- Zone 8 looks back on the Franklin Expedition in popular imagination, both in Britain and in Canada.
The design of the exhibit itself was intended to be both chronological and thematic, following the same trail of breadcrumbs that the early Franklin searchers would have while also showing what three different kinds of historical sources (Inuit Oral Tradition, archaeology, and written documents) could tell us about what happened.
Fortunate Coincidences
One of the pieces of insight from our talk that I found the most fascinating was that work on this exhibit actually began in 2014, before either of the two ships were found, and with no guarantee that they would ever be found. Their original plan was to present the history as they knew it, bringing together history, archaeology, and Inuit oral history in the same place, giving all three equal weight.
What’s more, the entire exhibit is, in many respect, the result of a series of happy accidents. In addition to the discovery of both ships from the Franklin Expedition, much of the information that shaped the exhibit came from a series of interviews conducted by Dorothy Harley Eber, an independent researcher working in the North, roughly ten to fifteen years ago. She donated her audio cassettes to the museum, and they were invaluable in helping to show how knowledge of the Franklin Expedition was part of the larger Inuit cultural knowledge bank.
The exhibit also proved to be well-timed. Just as Ryan began collecting artifacts for the exhibit, the National Maritime Museum shut down their polar exploration exhibit for restorations. It is a general practice among museums that relevant artifacts are loaned whoever possible. However, this rarely includes items that are already on display. The restoration, therefore, meant that quite a number of artifacts that would not have otherwise been available, were. It was for this reason that Ryan was able to include the Victory Point note in her exhibit, along with some of the most famous artifacts related to the Franklin Expedition. The Victory Point note, of course, is the famous second note found by searchers, reporting on Franklin’s death and the plan to walk south. This exhibit marks the first time it has returned to the land we currently call Canada since its discovery.
Finally, of course, the discovery of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror proved to be extremely exciting and useful. Ryan reported that Parks Canada was happy to work with the museum, and loaned items as they were finished being conserved. In some cases, as was the situation with the furniture from Franklin’s cabin, sometimes conservation was only completed two or three weeks before the exhibit opened. So Ryan was able to include almost all of the items she wanted to in this collection, with the exception of the canon that was discovered, but is still undergoing conservation.
Centring Inuit Voices
For Ryan, it was important that visitors to the exhibit enter the narrative in the same place that the original Franklin searchers would have: encountering Inuit. Following the disappearance of the ships, a series of search vessels and expeditions were mounted. The first real information that the searchers found came from Inuit, via John Rae. The Scottish explorer was actually working to map the Arctic mainland in the East when he encountered an Inuk with an officer’s gold hat band and cutlery. Recognizing that the item likely came from Franklin’s crew, he asked Inuit from the area to sell him any other similar items they possessed. Along with these items, Inuit brought stories from other Inuit communities further west about seeing starving and sick white men.* While Rae was unable to go west and investigate these stories himself, he did bring this information and the material he collected back to London, arguing that it had to be from the Franklin Expedition. This was the first solid evidence regarding the fate of Franklin’s crew. Inuit were the last to see these sailors alive, and they boarded the Erebus after it was abandoned. Their experiences have been recorded in the Oral Tradition, and passed on.
It is for this reason that the Franklin Expedition exhibit both begins with Inuit history, and also has as one of its main objectives to correct the still prevailing public attitude that Inuit oral histories are unreliable sources of information, neither useful nor accurate. However, as Ryan pointed out, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The defining characteristics of Inuit Oral Histories are their longevity and accuracy. For Inuit, this knowledge is a matter of survival.
Further, contrary to most media depictions, this oral history did not exist solely to record the activities of European explorers in the Arctic. Rather, generations of Inuit have recorded their experiences living on the land, and passed down this knowledge from generation to generation. What’s more, these stories are not simply artifacts of the past, but living narratives that continue to be relevant and tie together the past, present, and the future. For instance, one story that Ryan told me that I found very poignant was in regards to Inuk historian, Louie Kamookak. She described how he came down to visit the museum and record interviews to be used in the exhibit. In one, which is on display, he remembered how his great-grandmother (Uman) told him stories about traveling to the north shore of King William Island, and finding musket balls, forks, and spoons, though they did not know what they were at the time. These stories also contained information about the area where the ships were stuck, and area that continues to be very difficult to survive in, and the ice takes a long time to clear each winter. For Kamookak, these stories were not simply relics of the distant past, but living and breathing connections to land and kin.
This carving depicts a type of multi-decked sailing ship common during the 1500s and 1600s. The style of the figure’s hat is similar to those worn by European sailors during the same period. The carving was collected from an archaeological site in Amadjuak Bay, on the southern coast of Baffin Island.
When approaching the exhibit herself, one artifact shaped her thinking on the Franklin story: an Inuit carving of a European ship. Not much is known about the artifact itself (it was picked up by a “collector” on Southern Baffin Island, near the location of Martin Frobisher’s mining operations), but it appears to be part animal, part boat, and depicts a multi-decked European ship from the 1500s to the 1600s from an Inuit perspective. But many questions remain: Is the animal head on the ship an Inuit representation of the figureheads that were common on ships from this era? Is the figure depicted on board Martin Frobisher? There is no way to be certain.
Expert Tip: Both historically, and in the present, explorers, researchers, and tourists have collected items of interest from archaeological sites. This carving was collected by a biologist in either 1922 or 1925, from an Inuit archaeological site in the Soper River Valley, near a traditional overland passage. While it is important that the artifact eventually made its way to a museum, its casual collection presents a huge loss. Not only have we lost all potential archaeological information that we could have learned from the object’s placement and location (for instance, was it from a summer dwelling or a winter dwelling? Where inside the dwelling was it located?), but it also represents the countless artifacts that have not found their way to museums, and have been lost to history. Don’t be that person.
An Inuk artist from Labrador was asked to look at the artifact, and determined that it was likely an aid to illustrate oral histories, to give the audience something to see while they listened to the story. This beautiful artifact, with its uncertain history, its service as a visual aid, and its physical representation of non-European perspectives on history, served as an ideal jumping off point for the exhibit. In many ways, it is the counterpoint and foil to European depictions of explorers, an example of Inuit looking back at the “other.”
*Rae, like most of his contemporaries and subsequent explorers in the area, rarely recorded the names of Inuit he spoke with. When names were recorded, they were often spelled as they sounded to European ears. It is therefore difficult for historians and archaeologists to attach specific names to the stories recorded in written documents. However, we do know that one of Rae’s most important informants was named Innookpoozhejook, a member of the Netsilingmiut from the area of Pelly Bay. Two other Inuuk that we know were associated with the search for the Franklin Expedition were Ipirvik and Taqulittuq, a husband and wife from Baffin Island (Kikiqtaaluk) who served as guides and caretakers.
A British and a Canadian Story
As many of you are aware, the exhibit currently on display at the Canadian Museum of History originally premiered at the National Maritime Museum. I was surprised to learn of the significant differences between the two exhibitions — location and institution really does matter. The show itself was developed in Gatineau by the Canadian Museum of History. They then sent everything on to the National Maritime Museum, who tweaked the exhibit based on their audience and local knowledge (or lack thereof) as well was what each institution judged to be critical. For instance, the Canadian version included more details on what life was like in the Royal Navy, while the British version included more details about the various ways that the cold can injure and kill you (like what frostbite is). Another fascinating difference had to do with the ways in which the sailors on board were identified. In Canada, the list included names, ranks, and ages, while the British version also included the county where each sailor was born. This worked well in two respects, since not only is the story slightly less well-known in the UK, but British visitors were able to better identify with sailors who came from places they knew.
The square footage of the exhibit, 1000 square feet less than the British version, as well as the challenge of limiting text (as discussed in my interview with Jenny Ellison on Hockey), meant that the Canadian curators also had to be more creative when it came to what to include and what to leave out. There was a great deal of information on the preparations that went into the ship’s voyage, more than could be shown in the exhibit space. However, the curators employed touch screens that allowed visitors to go into more depth in certain areas, and listen to Inuit Knowledge Keepers tell their stories about encounters with Franklin’s crew.
Something that I thought was especially creative is that the Canadian exhibit included a outline of the ship on the floor of the exhibit that was to scale, including details on the rooms and layout. You could even “lie” in one of the officer’s beds if you liked! While this was originally a tool for the design team, they felt that this would be a great way to allow visitors to experience for themselves how small the ships themselves were, and what it was like to live in such cramped conditions for three years.
Humanity and Respect
The Franklin Expedition looms large in the Canadian imagination, whether we are talking about the idea of “Northern Explorers,” the politics of the wrecks, or even the common misconception that the ships were manned by a bunch of fools. Ryan’s goal was to make people understand that, at its very core, this is a human story; this story is not about two ships, but 129 individuals who died far from home in often horrible circumstances. Some of the sailors on board were very young. Most of them had never seen sea ice nor experienced this level of cold. What’s more, their families survived.
The descendants of those who died on the Franklin Expedition have retained their connections to the Expedition and the Royal Navy’s long history of polar exploration. The Canadian Museum of History recently acquired a collection of artifacts, carefully handed down through Lieutenant Fairholme’s family, which serve as a memorial to his life.
To bring the narrative’s focus back on the sailors themselves, Ryan and her team relied heavily on letters by the sailors in which they discussed their experiences. The items in the Lieutenant Fairholme Collection provided to be particularly useful. Lieutenant James W. Fairholme served on the HMS Erebus, and his letters are both exceptionally detailed and absolutely heartbreaking to read. In a letter home to his family, he discussed the dog on board the ship, Neptune, how it was getting its sea legs, and was able to go up and down the ladders, and how he sometimes gave the dog an extra kiss for his brother William, because William was a dog person. As Ryan noted, “that’s human. That right there is human.” In another instance, he wrote a letter home to his father about the daguerreotype of himself that he sent to his sister, and how excited he was to be wearing the commander’s coat! He had forgotten his own, so Commander Fitzjames lent him his own. He joked to his family that: “you will perceive that I am a Commander! and have anchors on the epaulettes so it will do capitally when that really is the case.”
Moreover, far from being ill-prepared and incompetent fools, the sailors on board were well-trained and well-provisioned, and led by a man who already had three north-west passage expeditions under his belt. The ships, though small, were very strong and originally built to fire mortars. They were also equipped with steam powered engines and enough coal for twelve days. Franklin was been instructed to fire the engines to allow the ships to go down passages that they otherwise would not have been able to, when there was no wind or the wind was against them. And it was this that sealed their fate. We know now, thanks to Inuit Oral Tradition, that the passage they went down was in an area that Inuit had abandoned because the living conditions were unsustainable. We often forget that this was the little ice age, and Inuit tradition records this period as being very difficult. The specific area that Franklin explored was abandoned because there was so much ice that the seals couldn’t breathe. No seals, no hunting, no survival. The passage was temporarily clear when Franklin sailed down it, but the ice filled in behind them, leaving them stuck in the ice. What’s more, searchers did notice this area, but felt that it was so full of ice that Franklin never would have been able to go down there.
Dealing with Challenging Subjects
While it was important for the curators to focus on the human story, they were also very cautious about how the story was presented. For instance, while there is some family programming, there is not a great deal considering how the story ended. In addition, the curators explicitly refrained from any suggestions that visitors put themselves “into the sailor’s shoes,” because, as Ryan explained, it felt wrong.
This cautious approach went doubly for more challenging, and even contentious (to some) subjects. For instance, as Ryan explained, archaeologists know that Franklin’s crew did engage in cannibalism. This is one area where both the archaeology and Inuit Oral Tradition are unanimous: there were very clear signs of butchery marks on the bones and Inuit accounts make it clear that they came across some of the Franklin camps, where there found relatively recent bodies that were fully intact, and older bodies that had been partially dismembered. But there are still individuals who dispute this, particularly in the UK. Ryan and the curators wanted to present this information in a factual, but non-emotional and non-judgemental way. All of the information on the forensics is tucked away in a small area, with a disclaimer about the sensitive materials contained therein. Inside, there are detailed discussions about butchery marks, how they differ from cut marks, and how they are identified. There is also information about the possibility of cannibalism as a cause of death, discussed with the same compassion and attention to detail as with tuberculosis and lead poisoning. But the exhibit makes clear that this was only done as a last resort, and that there is no shame in survivor cannibalism. That said, they do include information on Lady Franklin and Charles Darwin’s views, both of whom staunchly insisted that British men would never stoop to such lows.
What’s Next?
Following its stay in Gatineau, the exhibit will move on to two additional venues: one in Connecticut and one in Anchorage, Alaska. There will also be a mini-exhibit for Nunavut. The Inuit Heritage Trust is working with the Museum to create a traveling version of the show that can be displayed in communities across the Arctic.
But work remains ongoing. To date, very little work has been done on the Terror. Searchers have not yet gone inside, since the wreck is much more complicated, in better shape, and the diving conditions haven’t been ideal. The Erebus was easier to explore, since the wreck was much more damaged.
Ryan sent me these images of a board game that was inspired by the Franklin Expedition. I’m gobsmacked.
When I asked Ryan if there was anything she was hoping they would find, she responded without hesitation: the log books. She even joked that she’d like to use a time machine to go into the future to see if they found any documentation on the ships. To my surprise, Ryan informed me that there is a real possibility that searchers may find the log books on board the HMS Terror, and, even more incredibly, they may be able to read them. Nineteenth-century paper was much sturdier than the paper that is made today, making it more likely to have survived. What’s more, the books, and other other documents, were likely pressed together in boxes, and the cold likely preserved them.
There is also ongoing work in the Arctic to record Inuit Oral Histories of the expedition, particularly in the wake of Louie Kamookak’s passing. Kamookak amassed an amazing amount of knowledge over his lifetime. Not only did he know many Elders and Knowledge Keepers who knew the stories, but many people were willing to speak to him. And his work did not stop with the discovery of the two ships. He spent countless hours speaking with people about what they knew, pursing slight variations in the narratives that exist within families and communities. It remains unclear how much of this information was recorded before Kamookak’s passing. Since my interview with Ryan, Parks Canada and Know History announced a new project where they will be working in the North to interview Inuit Knowledge Keepers to continue Kamookak’s work. Kamookak was aware of and approved of the project before he passed. Not only will part of the project involve training young people to gather oral histories, but the stories gathered will be compiled into a book in Kamookak’s honour, and the stories themselves will be part of future exhibits at the Nattillik Heritage Centre in Gjoa Haven, as well as on Parks Canada and the Kitikmeot Inuit Association’s websites. These additional stories have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the fate of the Franklin Expedition.
Once again, extra special thanks to Karen Ryan for agreeing to talk to me! If you’re lucky enough to live within driving distance of Ottawa, unlike poor me, you should definitely check out the exhibit while it’s still available! It’s not like I’m jealous of anything….. 😛 If you’re interested in learning about the Franklin Expedition, and can’t make it to Ottawa, I highly recommend Russell Potter’s blog, Visions of the North, as well as the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History exhibit, “The Franklin Mystery: Life and Death in the Arctic.”
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this blog post! If you did, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice. And don’t forget to check back on Thursday for the latest review of Back in Time for Dinner! See you then!
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