Stefansson, Vilhjalmur, 1879-1962

Born William Stephenson in 1879 in Manitoba, Canada, Stefansson was an explorer, anthropologist, public intellectual, and policy adviser whose life work included several important expeditions to the Arctic. He began planning an expedition to Wrangel Island somewhat secretly beginning in the fall of 1920, hoping to definitively claim Wrangel Island for Canada or Britain. As his active exploring career had already ended, he stayed in Canada while the team went to Wrangel Island. Ill-equipped and inexperienced, all four men hired by Stefansson died in 1923; Ada Blackjack was the sole survivor of the trip. Stefansson had a significant association with Dartmouth College, beginning in the 1920s and 30s when he was an occasional lecturer. In 1947, he moved to Vermont with his wife, working on the Encyclopedia Arctica and becoming an Arctic Consultant to the College. Though the Encyclopedia Arctica project was canceled in 1951, its unpublished chapters and associated materials are now housed in the Rauner Library as part of the Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration. Stefansson continued teaching and writing at Dartmouth until his death in 1962 in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he is now buried.

Arctic explorer. President of the Stefansson Arctic Exploration & Development Company. Figurehead of the Wrangel Island expedition.