Stefansson poses on Meighen Island, N.W.T. (Photo: Canadian Museum of Civilization, photo George Hubert Wilkins, no. 50689)
Anderson, an American mammalogist and zoologist, was in charge of the Southern Party. And though he would go on to write and publish his own work after his team finished in 1916, he spent much of his career editing the 16-volume series of the expedition’s scientific volumes, Report of the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-18. For this and his other contributions to Canadian zoology, Anderson became a Fellow in the early years of the Society.
Jenness’ anthropological work on the Copper Inuit, conducted as a member of the Southern Party, yielded numerous works including two books still popular today, The People of the Twilight and Dawn in Arctic Alaska. Jenness was elected an RCGS Fellow in 1962, the same year he received the Society’s Massey Medal, which recognizes outstanding career achievement in the exploration, development or description of the geography of Canada.
Stefansson, Anderson and Jenness were lauded for their work during the latter’s acceptance of the medal. “It is to such men — and to The Royal Canadian Geographical Society that does so much to encourage them and to interest us — that we owe a great debt,” said Major General H.A. Young, the RCGS president at the time. “No people can aspire to greatness without a knowledge of their land, an appreciation of their past and a vision of their future.”
For more stories about the CAE, see “Canada’s unsung expedition”.