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Northern People, Northern Knowledge - 
The Story Of The Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913 - 1918
The People of the CAE: Leaders, Scientists, Captains And Crews, Local Assistants
Northern Party | Southern Party | The Karluk
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Southern Party

Scientists:

Kenneth Chipman
Chief topographer with the CAE Southern Party, Chipman remained a topographer after the Expedition and for the rest of his career, first with the Geological Survey of Canada and then with the Topographical Survey. He and his colleague J.R. Cox published their Expedition results in a CAE paper on the topography of the Arctic coast west of the Kent Peninsula. Chipman died in 1974. A point at the mouth of Bernard Harbour was named for him.

John Raffles Cox
After returning from the Expedition, J.R. Cox continued to lead a life of adventure. His service in the Canadian army for nearly two years in France was followed by a stint in India working for an oil company. He then travelled to Peru, Kenya and Uganda, and the USA on various business engagements, and finally to Arizona where he retired. He died in 1977. A small island in the mouth of Bernard Harbour bears his name.

Cox's daughters donated the camera that he used during the CAE to the Canada Museum of Science and Technology

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RNWMP Corporal W.V. Bruce, John Cox (with tuque), Patsy Klengenberg (with paddle), and J.J. O'Neill (in stern) returning in boat to the CGS Alaska, Cape Parry, Amundsen Gulf, N.W.T., July 24, 1916. GHW 51309. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


Diamond Jenness
New Zealand-born and Oxford-educated, anthropologist Diamond Jenness (1886-1969) became the foremost Canadian anthropologist, a career founded on his work with the Canadian Arctic Expedition.

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Diamond Jenness, CAE ethnologist, seated on ground with five Copper Inuit, Bernard Harbour, Nunavut. September 6? 1914. FJ 42232. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


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Jenness in white fur parka, standing on deck of Alaska en route to Nome, at Young Point, Amundsen Gulf, Nunavut. July 20, 1916. GHW 51291. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


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Jenness standing on deck of CGS Alaska near Cape Parry in fur atigi (parka), Amundsen Gulf, en route to Nome, Alaska. July 24, 1916. RMA 39209. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


His task on the CAE was to study the little-known Copper Inuit of the Coronation Gulf region of the Canadian Arctic. During the first winter of the Expedition he studied the local languages and excavated archaeological sites in Alaska. From August 1914 Jenness spent two years visiting, trading, travelling and living with the Copper Inuit. His experiences and gained knowledge were not only documented in several volumes of Expedition reports, but also in two still popular books for general readers (The People of the Twilight and Dawn in Arctic Alaska). Jenness collected a huge variety of ethnological materials: from clothing and hunting tools, to stories and games, and sound recordings of dance songs. On his return from the Expedition, Jenness enlisted in the Canadian Army and served overseas for two years as a gun spotter. In the 1920s he published five major reports based on his anthropological work. During the Second World War he was Deputy-Director of Intelligence. In his later career he recognized and named the Dorset and Old Bering Sea Inuit cultures. His studies of Canada's Native peoples from coast to coast resulted in a major work, The Indians of Canada.

The name Diamond Jenness is still well-remembered and well-respected in the Canadian Arctic communities. Elder David Bernhardt of Kugluktuk remembers how "Patsy Klengenberg talked a lot about Diamond Jenness, he was the only person Patsy talked about. He was well-known and well-liked" (Interview, September 2002). The descendants of Jenness' adopted family remain in touch with Diamond's son Stuart.

In 1991 Stuart Jenness edited and published his father's extensive and fascinating diary of his time with the CAE, Arctic Odyssey, The Diary of Diamond Jenness 1913-1916, complete with additional notes, lists of collections, letters, people, and photographs.

Fritz Johansen
A large bay near the Richardson Islands, on the south coast of Victoria Island, carries Johansen's name to honour his CAE work as a biologist. After the Expedition he worked for the Naval Service and its successor, the Department of Marine and Fisheries, until the late 1920s when he returned to Denmark. He died there in 1957. His published CAE reports are on insect life in the western Arctic, Arctic vegetation and crustaceans. His manuscript on Arctic fishes was never published, but has been of great value in the production of a new work on the fishes of Arctic Canada by the Canadian Museum of Nature.

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Fritz Johansen in front of CAE house, Bernard Harbour, Nunavut. July 11, 1916. GHW 51240. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


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Fritz Johansen, CAE biologist, in a fur parka, with sled bearing the sign "Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913", at winter quarters, Collinson Point, northern Alaska, October 1913. KGC 43197. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


J. J. O'Neill
O'Neil, one of the CAE's two geologists, continued to work for the Geological Survey after returning from the Expedition. His CAE report on the geology of the Arctic coast of Canada was published in 1924. He later spent a year in India doing a commercial job, then returned to Canada and joined the faculty of geological sciences at McGill University. In 1935 he became Dean of Science and from 1949 until he retired in 1952 he was vice-principal of the University. O'Neill died in Ottawa in 1966. In 1999, a new mineral species from Mont Saint-Hilaire was named "oneillite" in honour of O'Neill's contribution to Canadian geology.

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J.J. O'Neill, smiling, Bernard Harbour, Nunavut, July 6, 1916. GHW 51206. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization


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J.J. O'Neill, well bundled up, on deck of schooner CGS Alaska, sled and Umiak in background, Young Point, Amundsen Gulf, Nunavut. July 21, 1916. GHW 51294. Source: Canadian Museum of Civilization