WNP 1926 North Pole

WNP - 1926 Rawson-Macmillan Expedition. One of 8 North Pole Expeditions beginning in 1923 that used shipboard ham radio for daily communication. The radio operator was Paul McGee pictured on the card.

CAPT Donald E. MacMillan was a noted Arctic explorer, who was with Peary when he discover the North Pole. A professor at Bowdoin College in Maine, he spent his entire life exploring the Arctic regions. In 1925 he joined an expedition, led by CDR Richard E. Byrd, which attempted to reach the North Pole by airplane. In 1926, when this card was mailed, he visited Labrador, Baffin Island and Greenland.This expedition was sponsored by the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago from 1926-28 and centered on studies of native ethnology and archeology.

Clifford Elmer Himoe (1905-1998), son of Stephen Ernest Himeo and Anna Schneider, was the radio operator of WNP aboard the Schooner Bowdoin in 1927 for the Rawson-Macmillan Field Museum Expedition. In 1926 he was a radio operator aboard the S. S. West Cheswald. He held numerous call signs beginning with 9AOG before 1924: 9AOG & 9ZE (1925), 1IK (1927), W1IK (1928), W2AW (1929), W6ENZ (1930) and W2AW (1931). In 1958 he was employed by the Shore Electronics Division of the Bureau of Ships.

Card donated by Hank Merrill, K6IC ( ex 8BPL, W2ABT, and W3SC)

Courtesy of W2VRK
Last pagagraph about Clifford Himoe courtesy of W5KNE