W. Elmer Ekblaw Papers, 1914 | University of Illinois Archives

Description: Papers of W. Elmer Ekblaw (1882-1949), geography scholar and alumnus (A. B. 1910, M. A. 1912) noted for his contributions to the University of Illinois as editor of the Daily Illini (1909-10), co-founder of Homecoming (1910), and member of the Crocker Land Expedition (1913-17), includes a four-page letter from Ekblaw to Miss Eva M. Shepard of Chicago, dated April 13, 1914 while Ekblaw was in Etah, North Greenland detailing his frostbitten foot that required him to abandon the second attempt to find Crocker Land, his reading habits during recovery, his enjoyment of letter writing, his interactions with the Inuit, his hunting of bears and muskox, and reflections upon the solitude of his environment; a copy of his 1918 book Along Unknown Shores, detailing the Crocker Land Expedition, signed by Ekblaw on page 402; and his article "The Ecological Relations of the Polar Eskimo", originally published in Ecology, vol. 2, no. 2, April 1921.