Morgan dollar

United States
Value	1 United States dollar
Mass	26.73 g (412½ gr)
Diameter	38.1 mm (1.5 in)
Edge	Reeded
Composition	90.0% Silver 10.0% Copper
Years of minting	1878–1904, 1921
Mint marks	None (Philadelphia) CC (Carson City) S (San Francisco) O (New Orleans) D (Denver)
Obverse
Design	Liberty
Designer	George T. Morgan
Design date	1878
Reverse
Design	Eagle clasping arrows and olive branch
Designer	George T. Morgan
Design date	1878

The Morgan dollar was a United States dollar coin minted intermittently from 1878 to 1921. It was the first standard silver dollar minted since production of the previous design, the Seated Liberty dollar, ceased due to the passage of the Fourth Coinage Act, an act which also ended the free coining of silver. The coin is named for its designer, United States Mint Assistant Engraver George T. Morgan. The obverse depicts a profile portrait representing Liberty, while the reverse depicts an eagle with wings outstretched.

The dollar was authorized by the Bland–Allison Act. Following the passage of the Fourth Coinage Act, mining interests lobbied to restore the free coinage. Instead, the Bland–Allison Act was passed, which required the Treasury to purchase between two and four million dollars worth of silver at market value to be coined into dollars each month. In 1890, the Bland–Allison Act was repealed by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the Treasury to purchase 4,500,000 troy ounces (140,000 kg) of silver each month, but only required further silver dollar production for one year. This act, in turn, was repealed in 1893.

In 1898, Congress approved a bill that required all remaining bullion purchased under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to be coined into silver dollars. When in 1904, those silver reserves were depleted, the Mint ceased to strike the Morgan dollar. The Pittman Act, passed in 1918, authorized the melting and recoining of millions of silver dollars. Pursuant to the act, Morgan dollars resumed mintage for one year in 1921. The design was replaced by the Peace dollar later the same year.

In the early 1960s, a large quantity of uncirculated Morgan dollars was found to be available from Treasury vaults, including issues once thought rare. Individuals began purchasing large quantities of the pieces at face value, and eventually the Treasury ceased to exchange silver certificates for silver coin. Beginning in the 1970s, the Treasury conducted a sale of silver dollars minted at the Carson City Mint through the General Services Administration. In 2006, Morgan's reverse design was used on a silver dollar issued to commemorate the old San Francisco Mint building.

Background[link]

In 1873, Congress enacted the Fourth Coinage Act,^[1] which effectively ended the bimetallic standard in the United States by demonetizing silver bullion.^[2] Prior to enactment of the Coinage Act, silver could be brought to the mints and coined into legal tender for a small fee.^[3] With such a system in place, bullion producers could have silver coined into dollars when the intrinsic value of a silver dollar was lower than the face value, thus making a profit, flooding the money supply and causing inflation.^[4] The act ended production of the standard silver dollar (then the Seated Liberty dollar, as designed by Christian Gobrecht) and provided for mintage of a silver trade dollar, which was intended to compete with Mexican dollars for use in the Orient.^[4] Under the act, bullion producers were allowed to bring bullion to the mints in order to be cast into bars or coined into the newly authorized trade dollars for a small fee.^[4] Trade dollars initially held legal tender status, but it was revoked in 1876 to prevent bullion producers from making a profit by coining silver into trade dollars when the value of the metal was low.^[5] The restrictions on free coinage laid out in the Coinage Act initially met little resistance from mining interests until the price of silver declined rapidly due to increased mining in the Western United States.^[2] Protests also came from bankers, manufacturers and farmers, who felt an increased money supply would have a positive impact. Groups were formed that demanded the free coinage of silver (or "Free Silver") in order to inflate the dollar following the Panic of 1873.^[6]

In 1876, Richard P. Bland (left) introduced a bill in the House to resume coinage of the standard silver dollar, to which William B. Allison (right) added amendments in the Senate.

Beginning in 1876, several bills were introduced in the House of Representatives in an effort to resume the free coinage of silver.^[6] One such bill introduced into the House by Democratic Representative Richard P. Bland of Missouri was passed in the fall of 1876.^[6] Republican senator William B. Allison of Iowa added important amendments to the bill in the Senate. The House bill allowed Free Silver; one of Allison's amendments struck that provision.^[6] This same amendment allowed for the issuance of silver certificates for the first time in United States history.^[6] The bill was vetoed by President Rutherford B. Hayes.^[7] The president's veto was overridden on February 28, 1878.^[7] What came to be known as the Bland–Allison Act required that the Treasury purchase between two and four million dollars worth of silver per month, to be coined into silver dollars at the former gold/silver value ratio of 16:1, meaning that one ounce of gold would be valued the same as sixteen ounces of silver.^[3]

Design history[link]

A pattern half dollar created by George T. Morgan

A pattern for the standard silver dollar created by William Barber

In 1876, Director of the Mint Henry Richard Linderman began efforts to redesign the nation's silver coins.^[8] Linderman contacted C.W. Fremantle, Deputy Master of the Royal Mint in London, requesting him to "find a first class die-sinker who would be willing to take the position of Assistant Engraver at the Mint at Philadelphia."^[8] In response to Linderman's request, Fremantle wrote "My inquiries as to an Assistant Engraver lead me very strongly to recommend for the post Mr. George Morgan, age 30, who has made himself a considerable name, but for whom there is not much opening at present in this country."^[8] An agreement was reached between Linderman and Morgan for the engraver to work at the Philadelphia Mint under Chief Engraver William Barber on a six-month trial basis.^[8]

Anna Willess Williams, pictured here in 1922, sat for George T. Morgan five times as a model for his design.

Morgan arrived in Philadelphia on October 9, 1876.^[8] His earliest pattern coins designed during his tenure at the Philadelphia Mint were intended for the half dollar.^[9] In 1876, Morgan enrolled as a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts to prepare to create a new Liberty head design.^[10] Morgan also obtained studies from nature of the bald eagle for preparation of the reverse design.^[10] For the representation of Liberty, Morgan sought to depict an American woman rather than the usual Greek–style figures.^[10] Morgan's friend, artist Thomas Eakins, suggested he use Anna Willess Williams of Philadelphia as a model.^[10] In total, Morgan had five sittings with Williams; he declared her profile to be the most perfect he had seen.^[10]

On October 18, 1877, Linderman requested Superintendent of the Philadelphia Mint James Pollock to "instruct Mr. Morgan to prepare without delay, dies for a silver dollar, the designs, inscriptions, and arrangement thereof to be the same as the enclosed impression for the Half Dollar and numbered '2' substituting the words 'one dollar' in place of 'half dollar'". Linderman also ordered Pollock to "instruct Mr. Barber to prepare a reverse die for a dollar with a representation of an eagle as well as the inscriptions required by law. He will select whichever of his Heads of Liberty he prefers for the obverse of the same."^[11] Linderman evidently preferred the designs of Morgan over those of the Chief Engraver; he wrote Pollock on February 21, 1878, "I have now to state for your information, that it is my intention, in the event of the silver bill now pending in Congress, becoming law, to request the approval by the Secretary of the Treasury, of the dies prepared by Mr. Morgan."^[12]

Production[link]

A coinage press at the Philadelphia Mint

Production of the coins did not commence until March 11, more than a week after the passage of the Bland–Allison Act.^[13] The first acceptable strike, after adjustments to the press, was coined at 3:17 p.m. at the Philadelphia Mint.^[13] This piece was given to President Hayes; the second and third were given to Secretary of the Treasury John Sherman and to Mint Director Henry Linderman.^[13]

Linderman desired to involve the western mints of San Francisco and Carson City in production in order to help reach the monthly quota necessary under the Bland–Allison Act.^[14] Pressure was so great at the Philadelphia Mint that it halted production of all other coins and began operating overtime.^[15] Use of the western mints was delayed, however, as all dies were prepared at the Philadelphia Mint, and it was believed that the Western mints did not have the proper equipment to prepare the dies for use.^[16] During the second week of production, Linderman pointed out what he called a "slight imperfection" in the dies for the dollar.^[16] The reason for the changes was to reduce the relief of the designs and to change the number of tail feathers on the eagle from eight to seven; this was done because all prior United States coinage depicted the bald eagle as having an odd number of tail feathers.^[16] The high relief had caused the dies to have a shorter life.^[15] Dies were eventually sent to the Western mints, arriving in both San Francisco and Carson City on April 16, 1878.^[17] The New Orleans Mint began striking the new silver dollars in 1879.^[18] Throughout the series numerous small die varieties occurred. These have been cataloged by Leroy Van Allen and George Mallis into VAM Numbers for each year, and examples of each are in demand by advanced collectors.^[19]

The Denver Mint, established in 1906, struck the coins for only one year, in 1921.^[20] The mint marks appearing on the coins are none, representing Philadelphia, "CC" for Carson City, "S" for San Francisco, "O" for New Orleans and "D" for Denver.^[20] In order to conform to the Coinage Act of 1837, the Morgan dollar contained ninety percent silver and ten percent copper, measured 38.1 millimetres (1.50 in) in diameter and weighed 412.5 grains (26.73 g).^[21]

Sherman Silver Purchase Act, Panic of 1893[link]

Ohio senator John Sherman authored the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, forcing the Treasury to purchase 4,500,000 troy ounces (140,000 kg) each month.

Mintage of the Morgan dollar remained relatively steady until the passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act on July 14, 1890.^[22] The act, authored by Ohio senator and former Treasury secretary John Sherman, forced the Treasury to increase the amount of silver purchased to 4,500,000 troy ounces (140,000 kg) each month.^[23] Supporters of the act believed that an increase in the amount of silver purchased would result in inflation, helping to relieve the nation's farmers.^[24] The act also received support from mining interests because such large purchases would cause the price of silver to rise and increase their profits.^[24] Despite the fact that the purchase of silver was required by the act, it stated that the Mint must coin 2,000,000 silver dollars each month only until 1891.^[25] Since the Treasury already had a surplus of silver dollars, mintages dropped sharply beginning in 1892.^[22] Thus the scarcest coins in the series occur just after this date, with the rarest the 1895 Philadelphia issue, which has only been found as a proof mintage of 880 dollars.^[26] The silver that remained after mintage of the dollars was used to mint dimes, quarters and half dollars.^[22]

Beginning early in 1893, a number of industrial firms, including the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and the National Cordage Company went bankrupt.^[27] The resulting bank runs and failures became known as the Panic of 1893.^[27] In June of that year, President Grover Cleveland, who believed that the Panic was caused by the inflation generated by the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, called a special session of Congress in order to repeal it.^[25] The act was repealed on November 1, 1893.^[25] On June 13, 1898, Congress ordered the coining of all the remaining bullion purchased under the Sherman Silver Purchase Act into silver dollars.^[25] Silver dollar production rose again,^[20] until the bullion was exhausted in 1904, when it ceased.^[28]

Pittman Act[link]

Senator Key Pittman was responsible for the act that called for the melting of up to 350,000,000 silver dollars.

In 1918, Democratic senator Key Pittman of Nevada introduced legislation that was largely meant as relief for the British government during World War I.^[29] The bill, passed on April 22, 1918, states that "sales of silver bullion under authority of this act may be made for the purpose of conserving the existing stock of gold in the United States, of providing silver for subsidiary coinage and for commercial use, and of assisting foreign governments at war with the enemies of the United States."^[29] The reason for the United Kingdom's need was a propaganda campaign of the German government.^[28] The Germans convinced residents of India that the banknotes issued by the British government could not be redeemed for silver, which caused a run on the British supply of the metal.^[28] The Pittman Act authorized the melting of up to 350,000,000 silver dollars.^[29] The melting of the silver dollars began immediately after the passage of the act.^[29] A total of 270,232,722 silver dollars were eventually melted.^[29] 259,121,554 of the melted dollars were sold to the United Kingdom at the cost of one dollar per troy ounce.^[29] Another provision of the Pittman Act authorized the coinage of a replacement for every silver dollar melted.^[30] Mintage of the Morgan dollar resumed for only one year, 1921.^[30] Since all obsolete coinage dies had been destroyed in 1910, Morgan was forced to create an entirely new master die for the dollar.^[31] 1921 also marked the first issuance of the Peace dollar, as a coin to commemorate the resulting peace after World War I.^[32] This replacement of the Morgan dollar was issued under the terms of the Pittman Act without congressional authorization, despite the fact that the act makes no mention of the design of the coins.^[32] The change in design was actually authorized under an 1890 act of Congress,^[33] which stated:

Treasury release, General Services Administration sales and legacy[link]

Between November 1962 and March 1964, millions of Morgan and Peace dollars were sold to the general public.^[35] Interest began in 1962, when a date of Morgan dollar that was previously considered very rare was discovered in a bag of silver dollars taken from a vault of the Philadelphia Mint.^[35] The demand to exchange silver certificates for silver dollars was so great that lines formed outside of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., with some of those in line pushing wheelbarrows.^[35] Upon discovering bags of Carson City-minted dollars, Treasury officials decided to hold them back as mintage totals from that mint were generally lower than others.^[35]

2006 commemorative silver dollar, bearing Morgan's reverse design with modifications

On May 12, 1969, the Joint Commission on Coinage held a meeting in order to determine how best to dispose of the Carson City-minted dollars earlier held back by Treasury officials. They recommended a mail bid sale.^[36] Legislation was passed on December 31, 1970 stating that the approximately three million silver dollars were to be transferred to Administrator of General Services in order for the coins to be marketed.^[37] The legislation also stated that all proceeds from the sale were to be "covered into the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts."^[37] Congress supplied the General Services Administration with ten million dollars to market the dollar coins.^[36] Advertising consisted of posters and brochures distributed to post offices, banks and various financial institutions, as well as television documentaries.^[36] The coins were sorted and put into small plastic display cases.^[36] The Administration conducted a total of seven mail bid sales between 1972 and 1980.^[36] In total, the sales generated $107 million.^[36]

On June 15, 2006, legislation was approved that provided for the minting of a silver dollar and a five dollar gold coin in "commemoration of the Old Mint at San Francisco," with surcharges to be given to the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society in an effort to rehabilitate the Old Mint.^[38] In total, 100,000 gold and 500,000 silver commemorative coins were authorized.^[38] Authorization came at the behest of several hobby publications, who enlisted readers to contact their local congressmen in order to persuade them to pass necessary legislation.^[39] The designs approved for the silver dollar bear a left-frontal view of the Old Mint building and a copy of Morgan's eagle design on the obverse and reverse, respectively.^[40] Mint artist Joseph Menna made a new model for the reverse, employing a 1904 San Francisco-minted dollar as his model.^[41]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Silver dollar may refer to:

• A dollar coin made of any white metal, especially one made of silver
• Silver dollar (fish), a name given to various fish species
• A type of pancake
• Silver Dollar (film), a 1932 film starring Edward G. Robinson
• Silver Dollar, Ontario, Canada, a community

See also[link]

• Sylvestro Carolla, New Orleans gangster known as "Sam 'Silver Dollar'"
• James Marion West, Jr., Texas oilman known as "Silver Dollar Jim" for throwing coins to passersby on the street
• Silver Dollar City, a theme park in Missouri

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN
Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land
In office 5 January 1837 – 21 August 1843
Monarch	William IV Victoria I
Preceded by	Sir George Arthur
Succeeded by	Sir John Eardley-Wilmot
Personal details
Born	(1786-04-16)16 April 1786 Spilsby, Lincolnshire, England
Died	11 June 1847(1847-06-11) (aged 61) near King William Island, Canada
Spouse(s)	Eleanor Anne Porden & Jane Griffin
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1800–1847
Rank	Rear-Admiral
Battles/wars	French Revolutionary Wars Napoleonic Wars

Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The entire crew perished from starvation, hypothermia, tuberculosis, lead poisoning and scurvy, and the expedition's icebound ships were abandoned in desperation.^{[citation needed]}

Early life[link]

Franklin was born in Spilsby, Lincolnshire, in 1786 and educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth. John Franklin was the ninth of twelve children. One of his sisters was the mother of Emily Tennyson. Franklin's father initially opposed his son's interest in a career at sea. However, Franklin was determined and his father reluctantly allowed him to go on a trial voyage with a merchant ship. This hardened young Franklin's resolve, so at the age of 14 his father secured him a Royal Navy appointment on HMS Polyphemus. Franklin was later present at a number of historic voyages and naval battles. These included the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, an expedition to explore the coast of Australia on HMS Investigator with his uncle, Captain Matthew Flinders, a return to the Napoleonic Wars, serving aboard HMS Bellerophon at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and he was at the Battle of New Orleans.

He accompanied Captain Dance on The East India Company's ship the Earl Camden, frightening off Admiral Linois at the Battle of Pulo Aura in the mouth of the straits of Malacca 14 February 1804.

1819: Franklin's first and second expeditions[link]

In 1818, Franklin, under the leadership of Commander David Buchan in the Dorothea, was given command of the Trent. They set sail from Spitsbergen, but due to pack ice they returned after six months.^[1]

In 1819, Franklin was chosen to lead an expedition overland from Hudson Bay to chart the north coast of Canada eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River.^[1] Between 1819 and 1822 he lost 11 of the 20 men in his party. Most died of starvation, but there was also at least one murder and suggestions of cannibalism. The survivors were forced to eat lichen and even attempted to eat their own leather boots. This gained Franklin the nickname of "the man who ate his boots".^[2]

1823: Marriage and third Arctic expedition[link]

In 1823, after returning to England, Franklin married the poet Eleanor Anne Porden. Their daughter, Eleanor Isabella, was born the following year. Eleanor (senior) died of tuberculosis in 1825, shortly after persuading her husband not to let her ill-health prevent him from setting off on another expedition to the Arctic. This expedition, a trip down the Mackenzie River to explore the shores of the Beaufort Sea, was better supplied and more successful than his last.

On 29 April 1829 he was knighted by George IV. On 5 November 1828 he married Jane Griffin, a friend of his first wife and a seasoned traveller who proved indomitable in the course of their life together. On 25 January 1836 he was made Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order by King George IV. He was made a Knight of the Greek Order of the Redeemer as well.^[3]

1836: Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania)[link]

Franklin was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land in 1836, but was removed from office in 1843. He did not endear himself with the local civil servants, who particularly disliked his humane ideals and his attempts to reform the Tasmanian penal colony. His wife, Jane, was quite liberated for a woman of her day, known for "roughing it" to the extent that an expedition had to be mounted after she and Franklin became lost in the wild. Such exploits further distanced the couple from "proper" society, and may have contributed to Franklin's recall. Nevertheless, he was popular among the people of Tasmania. He is remembered by a significant landmark in the centre of Hobart—a statue of him dominates the park known as Franklin Square, which was the site of the original Government House. On the plinth below the statue appears Tennyson's epitaph:

Not here! The white north hath thy bones and thou

Heroic sailor soul

Art passing on thine happier voyage now

Toward no earthly pole

His wife worked to set up a university, a museum and botanical gardens. The village of Franklin, on the Huon River, is named in his honour, as is the Franklin River on the West Coast of Tasmania, one of the better known Tasmanian rivers due to the Franklin Dam controversy.^[4][5]

1843 Visit to Victoria[link]

Shortly after leaving his post as Governor of Tasmania Franklin revisited a cairn on Arthur's Seat, a small mountain just inside Port Phillip Bay, that he had visited as a midshipman with Captain Matthew Flinders in April 1802.

On this trip he was accompanied by Captain Reid of The Briars and Andrew Murison McCrae of Arthurs Seat Station, now known as McCrae Homestead.^[6]

1845 Northwest Passage expedition[link]

Map of the probable routes taken by HMS Erebus and HMS Terror during Franklin's lost expedition.

---

Legend

  Disko Bay (5) to Beechey Island (just off the southwest corner of Devon Island, to the east of 1), in 1845.

  Around Cornwallis Island (1), in 1845.

  Beechey Island down Peel Sound between Prince of Wales Island (2), to the west, and Somerset Island (3) and the Boothia Peninsula (4) to the east, to an unknown point off the northwest corner of King William Island, in 1846.

---

Disko Bay (5) is about 3,200 kilometres (2,000 mi) from the mouth of the Mackenzie River (6).

Exploration of the Arctic coastal mainland after Franklin's second Arctic expedition had left less than 500 kilometres (311 mi) of unexplored Arctic coastline. The British decided to send a well-equipped Arctic expedition to complete the charting of the Northwest Passage. After Sir James Ross declined an offer to command the expedition, an invitation was extended to Franklin, who accepted despite his age (59). A younger man, Captain James Fitzjames, was given command of HMS Erebus and Franklin was named the expedition commander. Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier, who had commanded HMS Terror during the Ross 1841–44 Antarctic expedition, was appointed executive officer and commander of HMS Terror. Franklin was given command on 7 February 1845, and received official instructions on 5 May 1845.^[7]

HMS Erebus at 370 long tons (380 t) and HMS Terror at 340 long tons (350 t) were sturdily built and were outfitted with recent inventions. These included steam engines from the London and Greenwich Railway that enabled the ships to make 4 knots (7.4 km/h) on their own power, a unique combined steam-based heating and distillation system for the comfort of the crew and to provide large quantities of fresh water for the engine's boilers, a mechanism that enabled the iron rudder and propeller to be drawn into iron wells to protect them from damage, ships' libraries of more than 1,000 books, and three years' worth of conventionally preserved or tinned preserved food supplies. Unfortunately, the latter was supplied from a cut-rate provisioner who was awarded the contract only a few months before the ships were to sail. Though his "patent process" was sound, the haste with which he had prepared thousands of cans of food led to sloppily-applied beads of solder on the cans' interior edges and allowed lead to leach into the food. Additionally, the water distillation system may have used lead piping and lead-soldered joints, which would have produced drinking water with high lead content.^[8] Chosen by the Admiralty, most of the crew were Englishmen, many from the North of England with a small number of Irishmen and Scotsmen.

The Franklin Expedition set sail from Greenhithe, England, on the morning of 19 May 1845, with a crew of 24 officers and 110 men. The ships travelled north to Aberdeen for supplies. From Scotland, the ships sailed to Greenland with HMS Rattler and a transport ship, Barretto Junior. After misjudging the location of Whitefish Bay, Disko Island, Greenland, the expedition backtracked and finally harboured in that far north outpost to prepare for the rest of their voyage. Five crew members were discharged and sent home on the Rattler and Barretto Junior, reducing the ships' final crew size to 129. The expedition was last seen by Europeans on 26 July 1845, when Captain Dannett of the whaler Prince of Wales encountered Terror and Erebus moored to an iceberg in Lancaster Sound.

It is now believed that the expedition wintered in 1845–46 on Beechey Island. Terror and Erebus became trapped in ice off King William Island in September 1846 and never sailed again. According to a note later found on that island, Franklin died there on 11 June 1847. To date, the exact location of his grave is unknown.

After two years and no word from the expedition, Franklin's wife urged the Admiralty to send a search party. Because the crew carried supplies for three years, the Admiralty waited another year before launching a search and offering a £20,000 reward for finding the expedition. The money and Franklin's fame led to many searches. At one point, ten British and two American ships, USS Advance and USS Rescue, headed for the Arctic. Eventually, more ships and men were lost looking for Franklin than in the expedition itself. Ballads such as "Lady Franklin's Lament", commemorating Lady Franklin's search for her lost husband, became popular.^[9] In the summer of 1850, expeditions including three from England as well as one from the United States joined in the search. They converged off the east coast of Beechey Island, where the first relics of the Franklin expedition were found, including the gravesites of three Franklin Expedition crewmen.

Statue of John Franklin in his home town of Spilsby

In 1854, the Scottish explorer Dr. John Rae, while surveying the Boothia Peninsula for the Hudson's Bay Company, discovered the true fate of the Franklin party from talking to Inuit hunters. He was told both ships had become icebound, the men had tried to reach safety on foot but had succumbed to cold and some had resorted to cannibalism.^[10] Rae's report to the Admiralty was leaked to the press, which led to widespread revulsion in Victorian society, enraged Franklin's widow and condemned Rae to ignominy. Lady Franklin's efforts to eulogise her husband, with support from the British Establishment, led to a further 25 searches over the next four decades, none of which would add any further information of note.^[10]

In the mid-1980s, Owen Beattie, a University of Alberta professor of anthropology, began a 10-year series of scientific studies known as the "1845–48 Franklin Expedition Forensic Anthropology Project", showing that the Beechey Island crew had most likely died of pneumonia^[11] and perhaps tuberculosis.^[12] Toxicological reports indicated that lead poisoning was also a possible factor.^[13][14] In 1997, more than 140 years after Dr. Rae's report, his account was finally vindicated; blade cut marks on the bones of some of the crew found on King William Island strongly suggested that conditions had become so dire that some crew members resorted to cannibalism.^[15] It appeared from these studies that a combination of bad weather, years locked in ice, disease including scurvy, poisoned food, botulism and starvation had killed everyone in the Franklin party.

In October 2009 Robert Grenier (a Senior Marine Archaeologist at Parks Canada) outlined recent discoveries of sheet metal and copper which have been recovered from 19th century Inuit hunting sites. Grenier firmly believes these pieces of metal once belonged to the Terror and formed the protective plating of the ship's hull.

A quote from the British newspaper The Guardian states the following:

"After studying 19th-century Inuit oral testimony – which included eyewitness descriptions of starving, exhausted men staggering through the snow without condescending to ask local people how they survived in such a wilderness – he believes the 19th-century official accounts that all the surviving expedition members abandoned their ice-locked ships are wrong. He believes both ships drifted southwards, with at least two crew remaining until the final destruction of their vessels. One broke up, but Inuit hunters arriving at their summer hunting grounds reported discovering another ship floating in fresh ice in a cove.

"They're not very strong on location or date," Grenier said. "They have all the space and time in the world, but what they reported seems quite clear."

The ship, probably the Terror, was very neat and orderly, but the Inuit descended into the darkness of the hull with their seal-oil lamps, where they found a tall dead man in an inner cabin. Grenier believes it was there they recovered the copper, which was more valuable than gold to them, and tools including shears from the ship's workshop with which to work it. Hauntingly, they also reported that one of the masts was on fire. Grenier wonders if what they saw was the funnel from the galley still smoking from a meal cooked that morning, before the last of Franklin's men disappeared from history.^[16]

Historical legacy[link]

Statue of John Franklin in London

For years after the loss of the Franklin party, the Victorian era media portrayed Franklin as a hero who led his men in the quest for the Northwest Passage. A statue of Franklin in his home town bears the blatantly false inscription stating "Sir John Franklin — Discoverer of the North West Passage". Statues of Franklin outside the Athenaeum in London and in Tasmania bear similar inscriptions. Although the expedition's fate, including the possibility of cannibalism, was widely reported and debated, Franklin's standing with the public was not diminished. The mystery surrounding Franklin's last expedition was the subject of a 2006 episode of the Nova television series Arctic Passage and a 2006 documentary "Franklin's Lost Expedition" on Discovery HD Theater. The expedition has inspired many artistic works including a famous ballad, Lady Franklin's Lament, a verse play by Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, a children's book, a short story and essays by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, and several novels, and is referenced in Canadian musician Stan Rogers' ballad Northwest Passage. There is also a direct reference to John Franklin's ill-fated expedition in the Irish-American group Nightnoise's album Something of Time, specifically in a track titled "The Erebus and the Terror". Additionally in 2007, a fictional account of the expedition was authored by Dan Simmons titled The Terror (ISBN 978-0-316-01744-2). Guitarist Bert Jansch and the band Pentangle (band) also interpreted the traditional song 'Lord Franklin'.

From 1954 to the introduction of decimal currency in 1966, Franklin's image appeared on the Australian £5 (five pound) note.

He is the namesake for the R/V Franklin, a research vessel built in Queensland. She currently flies the Swedish flag and serves in northern Europe.

The Franklin rose, developed by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, was named in his honour.^[17]

Sir Franklin was commemorated by several geographic names, including two islands in Antarctica and Greenland, Franklin Sound north of Tasmania and Franklin Strait in Arctic Canada, whereas his wife has given name to Lady Franklinfjord in Svalbard. The explorer was also remembered when one of Canada's Northwest Territories subdivisions was named the District of Franklin. Including the high Arctic islands, this jurisdiction was abolished when the Territories were divided in 1999. On 29 October 2009 a special service of thanksgiving was held in the chapel at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, to accompany the rededication of the national monument to Sir John Franklin there. The service also included the solemn re-internment of the remains of Lieutenant Henry Thomas Dundas Le Vesconte, the only remains ever repatriated to England, entombed within the monument in 1873.^[18] The event brought together members of the international polar community and invited guests included polar travellers, photographers and authors and many descendants of Sir John Franklin and his men and the families of those who went to search for him, including Admiral Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, Rear Admiral Sir John Ross and Vice Admiral Sir Robert McClure among many others. This gala event, directed by the Rev Jeremy Frost and polar historian Dr Huw Lewis-Jones, celebrated the contributions made by the United Kingdom in the charting of the Canadian North and honoured the loss of life in the pursuit of geographical discovery. The Royal Navy was represented by Admiral Nick Wilkinson, prayers were led by the Bishop of Woolwich and among the readings were eloquent tributes from Duncan Wilson, chief executive of the Greenwich Foundation and H.E. James Wright, the Canadian High Commissioner.^[19][20] At a private drinks reception in the Painted Hall which followed this Arctic service, Chief Marine Archaeologist for Parks Canada Robert Grenier spoke of his ongoing search for the missing expedition ships.

Works about John Franklin[link]

Non-fiction[link]

• Franklin Saga Deaths: A Mystery Solved? National Geographic Magazine, Vol 178, No 3, Sep 1990.
• Beardsley, Martyn. Deadly Winter.
• Beattie, Owen, and Geiger, John (1989). Frozen in Time: Unlocking the Secrets of the Franklin Expedition. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie Books. ISBN 0-88833-303-X.
• Beattie, Owen and Geiger, John (2004). Frozen In Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition (Revised edition)
• Berton, Pierre The Arctic Grail.
• Coleman, E. C. (2006). The Royal Navy in Polar Exploration, Franklin to Scott.
• Coleman, E. C. (2006). The Royal Navy in Polar Exploration, Frobisher to Ross. ISBN 0-7524-3660-0.
• Cookman, Scott (2001). Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition. ISBN 0-471-40420-9
• Hutchinson, Gillian (2009) "Searching for Franklin and the Northwest Passage". ISBN 978-0-948065-84-2.
• Joel, C. R. (2011) A Tale of Ambition and Unrealised Hope: John Montagu and Sir John Franklin. ISBN 978-1-921509-82-7
• Owen Beatle and John Geiger (1992) "Buried in ice: The mystery of a lost arctic expedition" ISBN 0-590-43849-2
• Lambert, Andrew (2009) Franklin: Tragic Hero of Polar Navigation. ISBN 978-0-571-23160-7.
• McGoogan, Ken Fatal Passage.
• McGoogan, Ken Lady Franklin's Revenge.
• Mirsky, Jeannette (1970). To the Arctic!: The Story of Northern Exploration from Earliest Times. ISBN 0-226-53179-1.
• Murray, David. (2004). The Arctic Fox: Francis Leopold McClintock, Discoverer of the fate of Franklin. Cork: The Collins Press, ISBN 1-55002-523-6.
• NOVA – Arctic Passage Part 1 – Prisoners of the Ice (TV documentary). See also program transcript.
• Payton, Brian (2009) The Ice Passage ISBN 978-0-385-66532-2
• Poulsom, Neville W. & Myres, J. A. L. (2000). British polar exploration and research : a historical and medallic record with biographies, 1818–1999 . London: Savannah.
• Sutton, Ann, and Myron Sutton. Journey into Ice; John Franklin and the Northwest Passage,. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965.
• Stefánsson, Vilhjálmur (1938). Unsolved Mysteries of the Arctic.
• Woodman, David C. Unraveling the Franklin Mystery: Inuit Testimony.

Fiction[link]

• The Discovery of Slowness, Sten Nadolny, Novel, 1983.
• The Rifles (novel), William T. Vollmann, Novel, 1994.
• The Terror (novel), Dan Simmons, Horror novel, 2007.
• The Broken Lands, Robert Edric, Novel, 1992
• The Ice Child, Elizabeth McGregor, Dutton, 3 May 2001
• Solomon Gursky Was Here, Mordecai Richler, 1989
• The Adventures of Captain Hatteras, Jules Verne, 1864, a novel in which Captain Hatteras shows many similarities with John Franklin.
• The Voyage of the Narwhal, Andrea Barrett, Novel, 1998
• Arctic Drift, Clive Cussler, Novel, 2008.
• Wanting, Richard Flanagan, Novel, 2008.
• Heart of Darkness (novel), Joseph Conrad,1902. See paragraph 6 in any edition for thematic references to John Franklin.

Music[link]

• "Lady Franklin's Lament", Traditional Ballad
• "Northwest Passage", a modern ballad explicitly citing Franklin and others, is a staple of Canadian political discourse^[21][22]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Alexander, Alison (editor) (2005)The Companion to Tasmanian HistoryCentre for Tasmanian Historical Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart. ISBN 1-86295-223-X.
• Robson, L.L. (1983) A history of Tasmania. Volume 1. Van Diemen's Land from the earliest times to 1855Melbourne, Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-554364-5

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: John Franklin

• Franklin and the North-West Passage Original reports from The Times
• NOVA's companion website for Arctic Passage
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• The Fate of Franklin (Russell Potter)
• The Life and Times of Sir John Franklin
• List of artefacts recovered from the Franklin Expedition
• Paper from the Universary of Calgary about the discovery of skeletal remains in 1992
• Works by John Franklin at Project Gutenberg
• Ottawa plans search for Franklin ships, Toronto Star, 14 August 2008.
• Search for Franklin from Frozen Ocean: Search for the North-west Passage

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