Field Notes—Baffin Island (Southwest Coast), May–August 1959 and Journal—Baffin Island, May–August 1959

"I've read stories about such trips but to think that I would be in such a position to experience the hardships of some of the great explorers was beyond my wildest imagination,” wrote Neal Griffin Smith in his journal on May 21, 1959, after more than 20 hours of traveling through the Arctic terrain. Prior to his decades-long career at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, ornithologist Neal Griffith Smith conducted his graduate research on Arctic birds, spending the summers of 1959, 1960, and 1961 on White, Southampton, and Baffin Islands in the Northwest Territories (now known as Nunavut). In addition to the field books in which he recorded his research notes, Smith meticulously maintained a personal journal during each of his trips. These journals were narrative logs of daily life, mundane tasks, environmental conditions, aches, physical pains, and food, but they also document Smith’s impressions of the islands, their inhabitants, and the local customs. Hand-drawn maps and sketches often illustrate the journal entries.

Discover more about these field notes in this collection.