Nathaniel Brown Palmer collection

The collection comprises of material relating to the United States Sealing Voyage, 1820-1821 (leader Benjamin Pendleton) from Stonington to the South Atlantic.

Nathaniel Brown Palmer was born on 8 August 1799 in Stonington, Connecticut. He went to sea in 1813, and was first employed in the coasting trade from Maine to New York. At the age of eighteen, he was given his first command of the schooner Gleaner, and in the following year, sailed as second mate aboard the sealing brig Hersilia on the United States Sealing Voyage (from Stonington), 1819-1820 (leader James Sheffield), in a search for new sealing grounds. The expedition searched for the Aurora Islands, found Shag Rocks and possibly Black Rock, and in January 1820, visited the Falkland Islands and South Shetland Islands, the first United States sealing vessel to reach the latter, which had only been discovered the previous year.

In the following season, Palmer commanded a sloop, Hero, on the United States sealing voyage (from Stonington), 1820-1821 (leader Benjamin Pendleton), returning as part of a fleet to the Falkland Islands, South Shetland Islands and Isla de los Estados. While the rest of the fleet hunted, Hero entered Deception Island to search for new sealing grounds. In November 1820, Palmer reported land to the south of Deception Island, which he explored, examining the area now known as Palmer Archipelago, but found no seals. Returning to the South Shetland Islands, he met the ships of the Russian Naval Expedition, 1819-1821 (leader Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen), off Deception Island, and discussed his findings with Bellingshausen.

The following year he commanded the sloop James Monroe on the United States Sealing Voyage (from Stonington), 1821-1822 (leader Benjamin Pendleton). Joining forces with George Powell of the British sealing voyage, 1821-1822 (from London), Palmer participated in the discovery and charting of the South Orkney Islands in December 1821.

Palmer made several later voyages between the United States and Europe. He returned to the South Shetland Islands on a final sealing voyage in the brig Annawan, in company with his brother Captain Alexander Palmer in the brig Penguin, on the United States Sealing Voyage (from New York and Stonington), 1829-1831 (leaders Nathaniel Brown Palmer and Benjamin Pendleton). Independent scientists who made biological and geological investigations and collections accompanied them on this voyage. Thereafter, he became a prosperous ship owner, contributing to the design and development of clipper ships trading to Europe, the Antipodes and China. He died on 21 June 1877 in San Francisco on his return from a trip to China.

The collection is arranged chronologically.

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Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to 'Stonington Antarctic explorers' by Edwin Swift Balch in Bulletin of the American Geographical Society (August 1909) volume 41 number 8 p473-492 SPRI Library Shelf Pam (722)91(091) and Americans in Antarctica 1775-1948 by Kenneth J. Bertrand, American Geographical Society New York (1971) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(091) Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer, an old-time sailor of the sea by John R. Spears, Macmillan Company New York (1922) SPRI Library Shelf 92[Palmer, N.B.] and Encyclopaedia of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans ed. Bernard Stonehouse, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (2002) ISBN 0471986658 SPRI Library (7) and Robert Keith Headland Antarctic Chronology, unpublished corrected revision of Chronological list of Antarctic expeditions and related historical events, (1 December 2001) Cambridge University Press (1989) ISBN 0521309034

Clive Holland Manuscripts in the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge, England - a catalogue, Garland Publishing New York and London (1982) ISBN 0824093941.

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