Photographs: Harold McCracken and the Alaska Arctic Expedition

Current Exhibition

Photographs from Harold McCracken’s Expedition to Alaska and the Arctic

McCracken Research Library Gallery

The dozen photographs in this display are taken from the collection of the McCracken Research Library, and document an expedition Harold McCracken led for the American Museum of Natural History in 1928. McCracken (1894 – 1983) was an American writer and the first director of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. His early travels in search of adventure took him to the Canadian Rockies and Alaska.

McCracken made a name for himself as an explorer and big game hunter by publishing articles and speaking on the radio to an American public eager to learn about the mysterious North. Throughout his career he was associated with museums, and he wrote a series of popular books for young people on Alaska wildlife.

For the 1928 expedition that McCracken headed, a group of scientists and hunters sailed with him on the schooner Morrissey to Alaska and the Arctic to collect specimens for the museum and to conduct archaeological investigations. McCracken was chosen as the leader because of his knowledge of the remote Alaska Peninsula, where he had hunted and filmed Alaska brown bears since 1916.

These four images give you a glimpse of the expedition and the beautiful photographs included in the exhibition.