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Cambridge West Greenland Expedition 1938

Amateur film showing this University-led expedition to study the geography, geology and botany – as well as cultural contacts between the Inuit peoples – of Greenland.

Amateur film 1938 36 mins Silent

Overview

Amateur film showing this University-led expedition to study the geography, geology and botany – as well as cultural contacts between the Inuit peoples – of Greenland. The film opens with dramatic icebergs near the Greenland coast. Inuit culture is recorded using a gramophone player; traditional rope games are demonstrated as is line fishing and wind-drying of the catch. The craftsmanship in the construction of a Kayak, a canoe-like boat, by men and women, also includes expedition team members being shown how to operate the craft.

Funded by the Royal Geographical Society, the Worts Fund and the British Museum this expedition undertook a study in the Umanak district of West Greenland during the Summer of 1938. The main objective was a petrological survey of Ubekendt Island. The expedition was led by Harald Drever with Donald Carmichael as organizer, Richard W. de F. Feachem (high-altitude balloon work and photography) and P.M. Game (Keeper of Minerals, British Museum). Drever and Feachem had accompanied Sir James Wordie on his 1937 expedition to the region; Wordie had travelled to the Antarctic with Shackleton on his ill-fated ‘Endurance’ expedition of 1914-18.

Genres

Amateur film and Documentary

Country

United Kingdom

Language

No Dialogue with English subtitles

Subjects

Greenland Expeditions Kayaks Greenland Inuit Ethnology Icebergs University of Cambridge

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