Adams, Edward (c. 1824-1856)

Notebook containing word-lists in English, Russian, Russian transliterated, and Alaskan Eskimo. Mikhailovsk Holograph, with ink sketches of Arctic birds and a sailing-ship; accompanied by a watercolour signed 'E.A.' showing the interior of a wooden Arctic hut.

1850-1851

1 l., 28 ll., 1 l. 12 x 17 cm. Bound in original boards.

Particulars of acquisition not known.

Navy Lists and examination records of the Royal College of Surgeons indicate that Adams passed the Royal College of Surgeons examinations in 1847 and became Assistant Surgeon to the Royal Hospital, Haslar, passing to the Plymouth Hospital in the same year. He joined the Franklin Relief Expedition of 1848-49 as Assistant Surgeon to both H.M.S. Enterprise and H.M.S. Investigator; and held the same appointment in H.M.S. Enterprise on the Franklin Relief Expedition of 1850-55 when he wintered in early 1850 and early 1851 at the fortified post of Mikhailovsk (renamed St. Michael['s] after the Alaska Purchase of 1867) in Norton Sound in the Bering Sea. Adams was promoted Surgeon in 1854, gained his Surgeon's certificate in 1855, and died in late 1856. [For a list of the Franklin Relief Expeditions see Sir John Richardson, Polar Regions, Edinburgh, A. & C. Black, 1860, pp. 172-174; and for brief references to Adams' activities in Alaska see W.H. Dall, Alaska and its resources, London, Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, 1870, pp. 344-345].

Described in: Robin Price, An Annotated Catalogue of Medical Americana in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1983).