The Arctic Council of 1851: fact or fancy?

2004/04/01 by W. Gillies Ross
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · Immunology and Microbiology · #Polar Research and Ecology #Arctic and Russian Policy Studies #Alexander von Humboldt Studies

paper · doi:10.1017/s0032247403003267

Abstract

The Arctic Council has often been described as a formal advisory body established by the Admiralty to help direct the search for Sir John Franklin (1847–59), but no such organization existed. The source of the erroneous and misleading notion appears to be a well-known composite portrait painted by Stephen Pearce in 1851. Frequent repetition in publications on Arctic history has perpetuated the error, with imaginative embellishments.

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