A sketchbook kept by Midshipman George Back (1798-1878) who was a member of the Franklin Overland Expedition to explore the shores of the Arctic Ocean eastwards from the mouth of the Coppermine River in the period 1819-1822. The other Royal Navy officers on the expedition were Captain John Franklin, Midshipman Robert Hood, and surgeon-naturalist Dr. John Richardson. This sketchbook of 82 pages covers the journey from Fort Enterprise up the Coppermine River to the Arctic coast in present-day Kitikmeot, Nunavut and eastward to Point Turnagain (4 June 1821 to 18 Aug 1821). Facing an early fall and failing to make contact with Inuit in the area, the expedition was forced to retreat across the tundra (19 Aug 1821 to Oct 1821); this part of the journey involved the starvation or death of over half of the members of the expedition, with the heavily weighed-down voyageurs of the party suffering most badly. The book also contains sketches from the return journey from Fort Resolution to York Factory (26 May 1822 to 10 Aug 1822). These journeys are not represented in chronological order in Back's cover-to-cover use of the sketchbook. During this ill-fated expedition, during which eleven of the twenty party members died, Back distinguished himself by rescuing the survivors from near starvation; travelling ahead of the main group with Métis interpreter Pierre St. Germain, Back was able to make contact with the Dene led by Akaitcho and thereby secure food and supplies. Back was promoted to Lieutenant during the course of the expedition, on January 1, 1821. Captain Franklin chose 16 of Back's sketches from this and other sketchbooks kept during the 1819-1822 expedition for publication in his account, Narrative of a Journey to the shores of the Polar Sea in the years 1819, 20, 21 and 22 (London: John Murray, 1823).
Morton, Angela : Mrs. Angela Morton of Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK, is a lineal descendant of the Arctic explorer George Back.
