Odysseus of the Arctic: The Epic of John Franklin and the Search for his Lost Expedition

• Main Author: Manne, Andy
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: PDXScholar 2023
• Subjects: Arctic exploration; John Franklin; 19th century exploration; folksongs; Jane Franklin; Arctic press; British exploration; Canadian exploration; Northwest Passage; Arctic; Romanticism; History; Rae; Northwest passage
• Online Access: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/younghistorians/2023/papers/11; https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/context/younghistorians/article/1262/viewcontent/PSU_Hist._Research_Paper__9_.pdf

This paper examines and maps the reasons for the lasting impression and legacy of the search for Sir. John Franklin's disappeared 1845 expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, burgeoning British Arctic exploration provided a rich foundation for serialized narratives, which, as they played off sentiments of national ambition and imperial pride, inspired a romanticization of the Arctic region and the men who explored it. The search for John Franklin's missing expedition became the epicenter of this trend due to the search efforts of his wife, Lady Jane Franklin, and the controversial findings of explorer John Rae. Most research focuses primarily or solely on Jane's efforts. As well as the public press coverage of the search and the response to Rae's reports as the cause of the expedition's popularity. This paper examines those two variables in tandem as well as mapping the legacy of the search through the movements and emergence of folksongs and other artistic works inspired by the expedition. Through analysis of letters and journals connected to the expedition and search, British newspapers publishing Arctic content, and archived recordings and broadsides of songs, this paper asserts that the relationship of the expedition to the quasi-mythological Northwest Passage, the efforts of Jane Franklin—amplified by the press, and the national fervor behind it--- all cemented the lost Franklin Expedition as a keystone event in the history of western exploration, and a story of uniquely legendary status among the sagas of the arctic.