Schwatka
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Schwatka. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
American Arctic explorer; born in Galena, Ill., Sept. 29, 1849; was graduated Military Academy at the United States in 1871, and served as a lieutenant of cavalry on the frontier till 1877, meanthe Newhile being also admitted to degree braska bar and taking a medical in New York. In 1878-1880 he commanded an expedition to King William's buried the Land which discovered and skeletons of several of Sir John Franklin's party, and gathered information which filled up all gaps in the narratives of Rae and McClintock, besides performing a notable sledge journey of 3,251 miles. After exploring the course of the his Yukon in Alaska, in 1885 he resigned commission. In 1886 he commanded the New York "Times" Alaskan expedition, and ascended Mount St. Elias to a height of 7,200 feet; in 1891 he led another party to Alaska which opened up some 700 miles of new country in the same expediquarter; and in 1889 he led an tion, for the journal "America," into Chihuahua, a, in northern Mexico. He pub- Great River" lished "Along Alaska's ) (1885); "Nimrod in the North" (1885 ; "The Children of the Cold" (1886); etc. He died in Portland, Ore., Nov. 2, 1892.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
shwotka, Frederick (1849-1892), an American explorer. He was born at Galena, Illinois, and died at Portland, Oregon. He was graduated at West Point in 1871. In 1878 he obtained leave of absence to head the search for the remains of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition. He was successful in finding Franklin's journals in a cairn of stones and returned with a creditable amount of information relative to the Arctic regions . He was the recipient of medals and honors from the geographical societies of Paris, Russia, Rome, Berlin, and Geneva. He engaged also in the exploration of the Yukon Valley and the ascent of Mount St. Elias; the former for the United States government, the latter for the New York Times. In 1884 he resigned his commission in the United States army, his rank being that of lieutenant. Among his writings are Along Alaska's Great River, A Nimrod of the North, and Children of the Cold. See Franklin ; Nansen ; Greeley ; Arctic Regions
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 claim that Schwatka "was successful in finding Franklin's journals in a cairn of stones" is now known to be wrong: his 1878-80 party recovered graves, bones and relics on King William Island, but no journals from the Franklin expedition have ever been found. What Schwatka did bring back, and what modern historians value most, is the Inuit testimony he collected, which guided searchers for well over a century; Franklin's ships were finally located by sonar on the strength of such accounts, Erebus in 2014 and Terror in 2016. His 3,251-mile sledge journey, praised by Collier's in 1921, was the longest on record at the time and remains a cited feat of Arctic travel. Mount St. Elias, which he reached only 7,200 feet up, was climbed to the summit in 1897 by the Duke of the Abruzzi's party.
Written for this edition, 2026.