Edmund Garwood collection

The collection comprises of material relating to British Exploring Expeditions, 1896 and 1897 (leader Sir William Conway)

Edmund Johnston Garwood was born in 1864. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1886. Between 1887 and 1892, he served as director of the Jarrow Chemical Company and as lecturer at the Cambridge University Extension Lecture Syndicate between 1891 and 1898. In 1896, he accompanied the British Exploring Expedition (leader Sir William Conway) to Spitsbergen where he studied glaciological phenomena and geology. For this work, he was awarded the Gill Memorial Fund by the Royal Geographical Society and the Wollaston Fund by the Geological Society of London.

Garwood returned north the following year on the British Exploring Expedition (leader Sir William Conway), a privately financed venture for geographical and geological exploration in interior Spitsbergen. At the end of July, Garwood and the assistant Nielsen ascended Nielsenfjellet to survey the scene inland, later setting off inland up the Kongsvegen glacier. They ascended the glacier to the vicinity of Kongsfjella, then turned back to examine the vicinity of Tre Kroner before finally returning to Kongsfjorden. Conway named the region of this exploration King James Land (now James I Land).

In 1899, Garwood accompanied Douglas Freshfield on an expedition to Kangchenjunga and was responsible for the accounts of the geological structure and physical features of Sikkim. In 1901, he was appointed Yates-Goldsmid professor of geology and mineralogy at University College, London, a chair he held until his retirement in 1931. Between 1930 and 1932, he served as president of the Geological Society of London. He died on 12 June 1949.

Published work The first crossing of Spitsbergen by (Sir) Martin Conway, J W Gregory, Aubyn Trevor-Battye and E J Garwood, J M Dent & Co. London (1897) SPRI Library Shelf (32)91(08)[1896 Conway] A northern highway of the Tsar by Aubyn Trevor-Battye, Constable London (1898) SPRI Library Shelf (50)91(08)[1894-95]

The collection is arranged chronologically

By appointment.

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Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to Arctic, exploration and development c500 BC to 1915, an encyclopaedia by Clive Holland, Garland Publishing, London (1994) and Exploring Polar Frontiers, a historical encyclopaedia by William Mills, San Diego and Oxford, 2003 and Polar Record January 1950 volume 5 number 39 p483 and Who was who, 1941-1950 Adam & Charles Black London (1952) and The Geographical Journal October to December 1949 volume 114 number 3-6 p238-239

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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