Vilhjalmur Stefansson


Stefansson, Vilhjalmur

 

Born Nov. 3, 1879, in Gimli, Manitoba; died Aug. 26,1962, in Hanover, N.H. Canadian arctic explorer and ethnographer. Of Icelandic extraction.

From 1906 to 1912, Stefansson carried on biological and ethnographical research along the northwestern coast of North America, from Point Barrow to Coronation Gulf. From 1913 to 1918, while leading a Canadian arctic expedition, he investigated Banks Island and Prince Patrick Island. In 1915 he discovered Borden Island, actually a group of three islands situated northeast of Prince Patrick Island, and in 1916 he discovered Meighen Island (80° N lat.) and Lougheed Island (77° N tat.). An island off the northeastern coast of Victoria Island has been named for Stefansson.

WORKS

My Life With the Eskimo. New York, 1913.
Greenland. New York, 1943.
Arctic Manual. Washington, D. C, 1944.
Discovery: The Autobiography of Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York, 1964.
In Russian translation:
Gostepriimnaia Arktika. Leningrad, 1935;2nded., Leningrad, 1948.

REFERENCES

Ol’khina, E. A. Vil’ialmur Stefanson. Moscow, 1970.
“Vilhjalmur Stefansson.” Polar Record, 1963, vol. 11, no. 73.