Biographical data

Biographical Data
Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor Photo Credit: Unknown

Biographical Data

Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor

Photo Credit: Unknown

Title
Official Number

Birth	07/06/1879	Death	31/12/1933
Place	Ilulissat (Jakobshavn)	Place	Copenhagen
Area	Greenland	Area
Country	Denmark	Country	Denmark

Titles
Honours
Awards	He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the American Geographical Society in 1912, and its Daly M
Qualifications

Biography
He was the son of a Danish missionary and an Eskimo woman. He was educated in Denmark. He set up a trading post at Thule Greenland in 1910. During his career he led four scientific expeditions to North Greenland. In 1912 he made a far northern crossing of the Greenland icecap. In 1916 he began a two year survey of the north Greenland coast. In 1919 he studies the east coast Greenland Inuit at Angmagssalik. The Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-4 took him into the Canadian Arctic where he made an "overland transit" of the Northwest Passage by dog team from the Atlantic Ocean to Wainwright Alaska. Scotty Gall met Rasmussen in the Arctic and his photographer Johansson. He felt that Rasmussen "ad a high opinion of himself." While Rasmussen travelled there was an advance party which travelled ahead of his Greenland komatik and set out caches of food and supplies for them at 50 mile intervals. Rasmussen and his seamstress just sat in the sled and let the dogs follow the trail because they knew there were supplies up ahead. Gall built up the caches high so that they could be seen for a long distance and as a result Rasmussen was able to make 50 miles per day. "In his book he doesn'make any mention of this or the help he received from the HBC" - Scotty says he gave him half of his winter dogfood. Rasmussen carried a letter from the Governor of the HBC in London instructing the HBC posts to provide him with supplies.

Biography

He was the son of a Danish missionary and an Eskimo woman. He was educated in Denmark. He set up a trading post at Thule Greenland in 1910. During his career he led four scientific expeditions to North Greenland. In 1912 he made a far northern crossing of the Greenland icecap. In 1916 he began a two year survey of the north Greenland coast. In 1919 he studies the east coast Greenland Inuit at Angmagssalik. The Fifth Thule Expedition 1921-4 took him into the Canadian Arctic where he made an "overland transit" of the Northwest Passage by dog team from the Atlantic Ocean to Wainwright Alaska. Scotty Gall met Rasmussen in the Arctic and his photographer Johansson. He felt that Rasmussen "ad a high opinion of himself." While Rasmussen travelled there was an advance party which travelled ahead of his Greenland komatik and set out caches of food and supplies for them at 50 mile intervals. Rasmussen and his seamstress just sat in the sled and let the dogs follow the trail because they knew there were supplies up ahead. Gall built up the caches high so that they could be seen for a long distance and as a result Rasmussen was able to make 50 miles per day. "In his book he doesn'make any mention of this or the help he received from the HBC" - Scotty says he gave him half of his winter dogfood. Rasmussen carried a letter from the Governor of the HBC in London instructing the HBC posts to provide him with supplies.

Military Service

Vessels Owned
Aircraft Flown
Named Features

Anecdotes

References
Stonehouse, Bernard (1990); MacFarlane, John M. (1990), Interview with E.J. Gall and Sven Johansson 27/08/1991 at Victoria BC; MacFarlane, J.M. (1992) Northwest Passage Challengers. In Resolution. Spring Issue. Maritime Museum of British Columbia; Rasmussen, Knud (1927)
Last update
2011-01-21 00:00:00

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Biographical Data

Rasmussen, Knud Johan Victor