Lincoln Ellsworth Papers

This collection consists of papers relating to Lincoln Ellsworth's flight across the North Pole in 1926 with Roald Amundsen and Umberto Nobile. Included are correspondence, various unpublished writings by Ellsworth, the certificate of award of the Norwegian Order of St. Olav, several maps, memorabilia, and other miscellaneous papers such as P. Kühne's "Chamois-Hunting in Switzerland" with the original drawings and correspondence of Arthur Frost bound in.

In the correspondence, along with letters of congratulations and announcements of awards and honors for Ellsworth, are numerous letters from Amundsen dealing with business matters such as the publication of their book First Crossing of the Polar Sea (a typescript can be found in the collection) and the awards of the Order of St. Olav, and with a controversy over the extent of Nobile's participation in the expedition. Also included in the correspondence are letters from Charles Dawes promoting the awards of a Congressional Medal to Ellsworth. Other notable correspondents are Richard E. Byrd, Calvin Coolidge, Wilbur Cross, Frank Kellogg, and Theodore Roosevelt. Much of the correspondence is addressed to persons other than Ellsworth.

All of the materials except the bound volumes came to Yale in the form of a portfolio compiled by Ellsworth and titled "Two Years of Arctic Exploration: Personal papers of Lincoln Ellsworth, 1925-1926." The porfolio has been dismantled for preservation purposes. The papers were the gift of Mrs. Lincoln Ellsworth in 1956.