Adams, Edward

Epithet: of Latchford in Great Haseley county 0xon

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000741.0x0000be

Edward Adams was born in 1824. He served as assistant surgeon in HMS Investigator on the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1848-1849 (leader Sir James Clark Ross) sent by the Admiralty to search for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition. The following year, Adams joined the British Naval Franklin Search Expedition, 1850-1855 (leader Richard Collinson), serving as surgeon in HMS Enterprise . He was a member of the party put ashore at Mikhailovskiy in October 1850 to investigate the rumour that survivors of the Franklin expedition had been sighted in the Yukon region of Alaska. After Lieutenant John James Barnard, the leader of the party, was murdered by Koyukon Indians in a surprise attack at Nulato on the Yukon, Adams rejoined HMS Enterprise at Port Clarence in July 1851, remaining within the Arctic for a further three years.

During his residence in Alaska, Adams assembled a wide variety of natural history notes and made observations on Indian ethnography. He died circa 1890.

From the guide to the Edward Adams collection, 1848-1851, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)