Editing Knud Rasmussen

{{Short description|Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist (1879–1933)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}{{Use British English|date=January 2025}}

{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = 
| name              = Knud Rasmussen
| honorific_suffix  = 
| native_name       = Kunuunnguaq
| native_name_lang  = Greenlandic
| image             = Knud Rasmussen.jpg
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| image_upright     = 
| alt               = 
| caption           = 
| birth_name        = Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|1879|06|07|df=y}}
| birth_place       = [[Jacobshavn]], [[North Greenland]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|1933|12|21|1879|06|07|df=y}}
| death_place       = [[Copenhagen]], Denmark
| death_cause       = 
| resting_place     = 
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| home_town         = 
| other_names       = 
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| residence         = 
| citizenship       = 
| nationality       = Greenlandic–Danish
| fields            = [[Anthropology]]
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| notable_students  = 
| known_for         = [[Polar exploration]] and [[eskimology]]
| influences        = 
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| awards            = {{ubl|[[Charles Patrick Daly#Honors|Daly Medal]]|[[Founder's Medal]]|[[Hans Egede Medal]]|[[Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography|Vega Medal]]}}
| author_abbrev_bot = 
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| spouse            = {{marriage|Dagmar Andersen|1908}}
| partner           = 
| children          = 3
| signature         = Across Arctic America - Knud Rasmussen signature.png
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}}

'''Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen'''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rasmussen, Knud {{!}} Inuit Literatures ᐃᓄᐃᑦ ᐊᓪᓚᒍᓯᖏᑦ Littératures inuites|url=https://inuit.uqam.ca/en/person/rasmussen-knud|access-date=28 May 2021|website=inuit.uqam.ca}}</ref> ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|æ|s|m|ʊ|s|ən}}; 7 June 1879&nbsp;– 21 December 1933)<ref>{{Britannica|491753}}</ref> was a Greenlandic-Danish polar explorer and anthropologist. He has been called the "father of [[Eskimology]]"<ref>Jean Malaurie, 1982.</ref> (now often known as Inuit Studies or Greenlandic and Arctic Studies) and was the first European to cross the [[Northwest Passage]] via [[dog sled]].<ref name="alley">{{cite web|last1=Alley|first1=Sam|title=Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen|url=http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/rasmussen_knud.html|publisher=Minnesota State University|access-date=23 November 2015|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101012111624/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/pqrst/rasmussen_knud.html|archive-date=12 October 2010|location=Mankato}}</ref> He remains well known in Greenland, Denmark and among Canadian [[Inuit]].<ref name="cruwys">Elizabeth Cruwys, 2003.</ref>

==Early years==
[[File:Rasmussenhaus.JPG|thumb|upright|200px|Rasmussen family house in [[Ilulissat]]]]
Rasmussen was born in Jacobshavn (now called [[Ilulissat]]), Greenland, the son of a Danish missionary, the vicar Christian Rasmussen, and an [[Inuit|Inuk]]–Danish mother, Lovise Rasmussen (née Fleischer). He had two siblings.

Rasmussen spent his early years in Greenland among the [[Kalaallit]] where he learnt to speak [[Greenlandic language|Kalaallisut]], hunt, drive dog sleds and live in harsh [[Arctic]] conditions. "My playmates were native Greenlanders; from the earliest boyhood I played and worked with the hunters, so even the hardships of the most strenuous sledge-trips became pleasant routine for me."<ref name=aaa/>

He was later educated in [[Lynge, Allerod|Lynge]], [[North Zealand]], Denmark. Between 1898 and 1900 he pursued an unsuccessful career as an actor and opera singer.<ref name=cruwys/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ilumus.gl/Knud%20Rasmussen_uk.htm |title=Life and history |publisher=ilumus.gl |access-date=6 January 2008 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080102140551/http://www.ilumus.gl/Knud%20Rasmussen_uk.htm |archive-date=2 January 2008 }}</ref>

==Career==
[[File:Knud Rasmussen 1924.jpg|thumb|Rasmussen, Mrs. [[Arnarulunnguaq]] and Mr. Meetek, 1924]]
He went on his first expedition in 1902–1904, known as The Danish Literary Expedition, with [[Jørgen Brønlund]], [[Harald Moltke]] and [[Ludvig Mylius-Erichsen]], to examine [[Inuit]] culture. After returning home, he went on a lecture circuit and wrote ''The People of the Polar North'' (1908), a combination travel journal and scholarly account of Inuit folklore. In 1908, he married Dagmar Andersen.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Forlag |first=Hans Reitzels |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1C2AhTGUdsC&dq=Dagmar+Andersen+%221908%22&pg=PA163 |title=Mellem mennesker: en grundbog i antropologisk forskningsetik |date=2009 |publisher=Hans Reitzels Forlag |isbn=978-87-412-5329-9 |language=da}}</ref>

In 1910, Rasmussen and friend [[Peter Freuchen]] established Thule Trading Station in [[North Star Bay]] near [[Mount Dundas]] in Greenland as a trading base.<ref name=cruwys/><ref name="Freuchen 1960">{{cite book|last1=Freuchen|first1=Dagmar|title=Peter Freuchen's Adventures in the Arctic|year=1960 |publisher=Messner |location=New York|page=21}}</ref> The name "Thule" was chosen because it was the most northerly trading post in the world, literally the "[[Thule|Ultima Thule]]".<ref name="aaa">Knud Rasmussen, 1927, ''Across Arctic America'', Introduction.</ref> The station became the home base for a series of seven expeditions, known as the ''Thule Expeditions'', between 1912 and 1933.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Johnston |first1=Jay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BaGUOm2SRngC&dq=Thule+Trading+Station+%22base%22&pg=PA279 |title=Animal Death |last2=Probyn-Rapsey |first2=Fiona |date=2013 |publisher=Sydney University Press |isbn=978-1-74332-023-5 |language=en}}</ref>

===The Thule expeditions===
The First Thule Expedition (1912, Rasmussen and Freuchen) aimed to test [[Robert Peary]]'s claim that a channel divided [[Peary Land]] from Greenland. They proved this was not the case in a remarkable {{convert|1000|km|mi}} journey across the inland ice that almost killed them.<ref name=cruwys/> [[Clements Markham]], president of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], called the journey the "finest ever performed by dogs."<ref>Clements Markham, 1921</ref> Freuchen wrote personal accounts of this journey (and others) in ''Vagrant Viking'' (1953) and ''I Sailed with Rasmussen'' (1958).<ref>{{Cite web|title=I sailed with Rasmussen by Freuchen, Peter: Hardcover (1958) Presumed first edition/first printing. {{!}} Ground Zero Books, Ltd.|url=https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/sailed-Rasmussen-Freuchen-Peter-Julian-Messner/19567739044/bd|access-date=2 February 2022|website=www.abebooks.com|language=en}}</ref> In 1915, he translated Mathias Storch's novel {{lang|kl|[[Singnagtugaq]]}} into Danish (''The Dream'' in English; translated as {{lang|da|En grønlænders drøm}}), the first novel written in Greenlandic.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thisted |first1=Kirsten |title=Arctic modernities: The environmental, the exotic, and the everyday |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge |location=Newcastle upon Tyne, UK |isbn=9781527506916 |chapter="A place in the sun": Historical perspectives on the debate on development and modernity in Greenland |page=320}}</ref>

The Second Thule Expedition (1916–1918) was larger with a team of seven men, which set out to map a little-known area of Greenland's north coast. This journey was documented in Rasmussen's account ''Greenland by the Polar Sea'' (1921). The trip was beset with two fatalities, the only in Rasmussen's career,<ref name=cruwys/> namely [[Thorild Wulff]] and Hendrik Olsen. The Third Thule Expedition (1919) was depot-laying for [[Roald Amundsen]]'s polar drift in the ship ''Maud''.<ref name=cruwys/> The Fourth Thule Expedition (1919–1920) was in east Greenland where Rasmussen spent several months collecting ethnographic data near [[Tasiilaq|Angmagssalik]].<ref name=cruwys/>

Rasmussen's "greatest achievement"<ref name=cruwys/> was the massive Fifth Thule Expedition (1921–1924) which was designed to "attack the great primary problem of the origin of the Eskimo race."<ref name=aaa/> A ten volume account (''The Fifth Thule Expedition 1921–1924'' (1946)) of ethnographic, archaeological and biological data was collected, and many artifacts are still on display in museums in Denmark. The team of seven first went to eastern Arctic Canada where they began collecting specimens, taking interviews (including the shaman [[Aua (shaman)|Aua]], who told him of [[Uvavnuk]]), and excavating sites.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Knud Rasmussen {{!}} Biography, Expeditions, & Facts {{!}} Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Knud-Rasmussen|access-date=2 February 2022|website=www.britannica.com|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Den danske polarforsker Knud Rasmussen modtager Charley P. Darby's guldmedalje af den amerikanske ambassadør i Danmark Mr. Prince.jpg|thumb|Knud Rasmussen receives Charley P. Darby's gold medal from US ambassador John Dyneley Prince.]]
Rasmussen left the team and traveled for 16 months with two Inuit hunters by [[dog sled]] across North America to [[Nome, Alaska]], and for less than 48 hours (because of visa problems) to Russia, where he interviewed a few of the local Inuit, the Yupiks. He found they did indeed speak the same language as other Inuit.  (Bown, pp 257-259). He was the first European to cross the [[Northwest Passage]] via dog sled.<ref name=alley/> His journey is recounted in ''Across Arctic America'' (1927), considered today a classic of polar expedition literature.<ref name=cruwys/> This trip has also been called the "''Great Sled Journey''" and was dramatized in the Canadian film ''[[The Journals of Knud Rasmussen]]'' (2006).<ref>{{cite AV media |title=The Journals of Knud Rasmussen. |date=2006 |publisher=Alliance Atlantis |location=Montreal |url=http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1159768332 |access-date=11 August 2022}}</ref>

For the next seven years, Rasmussen traveled between Greenland and Denmark giving lectures and writing. In 1931, he went on the Sixth Thule Expedition, designed to consolidate Denmark's claim on a portion of eastern Greenland that [[Erik the Red's Land|was contested by Norway]].<ref name=cruwys/>

The Seventh Thule Expedition (1933) was meant to continue the work of the sixth, but Rasmussen contracted pneumonia after an episode of food poisoning attributed to eating [[Kiviak|kiviaq]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |title=Eating Narwhal |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/eating-narwhal-57237540/ |access-date=19 October 2022 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=16 February 2002 |title=Review: This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich |url=http://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/feb/16/travel.highereducation |access-date=19 October 2022 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> dying a few weeks later in [[Copenhagen]] at the age of 54. During this expedition Rasmussen worked on the film ''[[The Wedding of Palo]]'', which Rasmussen wrote the screenplay for. The film was directed by Friedrich Dalsheim and completed in 1934 under the Danish title ''Palos brudefærd.''<ref>{{cite web
| url         = https://www.dfi.dk/viden-om-film/filmdatabasen/film/16094 
| title       = Palos Brudefærd 
| publisher   = Det Danske Filminstitut 
| language    =  da
| access-date  =  11 August 2020
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation | last1 =  MacKenzie | first1 = Scott| last2 = Anna | first2 = Westerståhl Stenport | title =  Films on Ice: Cinemas of the Arctic | place = Edinburgh | publisher =  Edinburgh University Press  | year = 2015 | chapter = 'From Objects to Actors: Knud Rasmussen's Ethnographical Feature Film The Wedding of Palo' by Ebbe Volquardsen | chapter-url = https://www.academia.edu/9250305 | pages = 217–223 | isbn = 9780748694174 }}</ref>

==Honours==
[[File:Knud Rasmussens Hus.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Knud Rasmussen House, now a museum, in Hundested, Sjælland, Denmark]]
In addition to several capes and glaciers, [[Knud Rasmussen Range]] in Greenland is named after him, as is the [[Knud Rasmussen-class patrol vessel]] and its lead ship, the [[HDMS Knud Rasmussen (P570)|HDMS Knud Rasmussen]].<ref name="mapcarta">{{cite web|url=http://mapcarta.com/19190364|title=Knud Rasmussen Land|work=Mapcarta|access-date=24 April 2016}}</ref>

He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the [[American Geographical Society]] in 1912, and its [[Charles Patrick Daly#Honors|Daly Medal]] in 1924.<ref name="amergeog">{{cite web|url=http://www.amergeog.org/honorslist.pdf |title=American Geographical Society Honorary Fellowships |website=amergeog.org |access-date=2 March 2009 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704200812/http://www.amergeog.org/honorslist.pdf |archive-date=4 July 2009 }}</ref> The [[Royal Geographical Society]] awarded him their [[Founder's Medal]] in 1923<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/C5962519-882A-4C67-803D-0037308C756D/0/GoldMedallists18322011.pdf |title=List of Past Gold Medal Winners |publisher=Royal Geographical Society |access-date=24 August 2015 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927221002/http://www.rgs.org/NR/rdonlyres/C5962519-882A-4C67-803D-0037308C756D/0/GoldMedallists18322011.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref> and the [[Royal Danish Geographical Society]] their [[Hans Egede Medal]] in 1924.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tidsskrift.dk/index.php/geografisktidsskrift/article/view/4567/8563 |title=Egede Medaillen |lang=da |website=tidsskrift.dk |publisher=[[Royal Library, Denmark]] & [[Copenhagen University Library]] |archive-date=10 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210042432/https://tidsskrift.dk/index.php/geografisktidsskrift/article/view/4567/8563 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He was made [[honorary doctor]] at the [[University of Copenhagen]] in 1924, and the [[University of St Andrews]] in 1927.<ref>{{cite web |title=Knud Rasmussen |url=https://nordjyske.dk/nyheder/knud-rasmussen/30dc5d04-5eb6-4c3c-b3ad-7e81b98c28cd |website=nordjyske.dk |lang=da |date=21 December 2008 |access-date=31 January 2021|archive-date=23 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023183711/https://nordjyske.dk/nyheder/knud-rasmussen/30dc5d04-5eb6-4c3c-b3ad-7e81b98c28cd |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* {{ws|''[[s:The People of the Polar North|The People of the Polar North]]''}} (1908)
* {{ws|''[[s:Greenland by the Polar Sea|Greenland by the Polar Sea]]''}} (1921)
* {{ws|''[[s:Eskimo Folk-Tales (1921)|Eskimo Folk Tales]]''}} (1921)
* {{ws|''[[s:Across Arctic America|Across Arctic America]]''}} (1927)
* ''The Fifth Thule Expedition''
** {{ws|''[[s:Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos|Intellectual Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos]]''}} (1929)
** {{ws|''[[s:Observations on the Intellectual Culture of the Caribou Eskimos|Observations on the Intellectual Culture of the Caribou Eskimos]]''}} (1930)
** ''Iglulik and Caribou Eskimo Texts'' (1930)
** ''The Netsilik Eskimos'' (1931)
** ''Intellectual Culture of the Copper Eskimos'' (1932)
** ''Alaskan Eskimo Words'' (1941) (posthumous)
** ''The Mackenzie Eskimos'' (1942) (posthumous)
** ''The Alaskan Eskimos'' (1952) (posthumous)

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Bown, Stephen R. ''White Eskimo: Knud Rasmussen's Fearless Journey into the Heart of the Arctic'' (Da Capo, 2015). xxvi, 341 pp. 
* Cruwys, Elizabeth (2003). "Rasmussen, Knud (1879–1933)", in ''Literature of Travel and Exploration: An Encyclopedia'', volume 3. {{ISBN|1-57958-247-8}}
* Malaurie, Jean (1982). ''The Last Kings of Thule: With the Polar Eskimos, as They Face Their Destiny'', trans. Adrienne Folk.
* Markham, Clements R. (1921). ''The Lands of Silence: A History of Arctic and Antarctic Exploration''. Cambridge University Press.

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://inuit.uqam.ca/en/person/rasmussen-knud Biography of Knud Rasmussen] on Inuit.uqam.ca
*{{BHL author}}
* {{Librivox author|id=12680}}
* {{OL author}}
* {{Gutenberg author|id=33593}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}
* [https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/1177 Aviation Studies in Greenland Report by Knud Rasmussen et al.] at Dartmouth College Library

{{Polar exploration}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rasmussen, Knud}}
[[Category:1879 births]]
[[Category:1933 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century anthropologists]]
[[Category:20th-century Greenlandic people]]
[[Category:20th-century Inuit people]]
[[Category:Burials at Vestre Cemetery, Copenhagen]]
[[Category:Danish ethnologists]]
[[Category:Explorers of the Arctic]]
[[Category:Explorers of Alaska]]
[[Category:Explorers of Canada]]
[[Category:Greenlandic Inuit people]]
[[Category:Greenlandic people of Danish descent]]
[[Category:Greenlandic polar explorers]]
[[Category:People from Ilulissat]]
[[Category:People from Hundested]]
[[Category:Eskimologists]]