Henry Grier Bryant
Henry Grier Bryant (November 7, 1859 – December 7, 1932) was an American explorer and writer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Education and early career
Henry Grier Bryant was born in
Exploration
Grand Falls
In 1891, Bryant became a member of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia.[5] That same year, he organized an expedition to Grand Falls in Labrador, then a part of the Newfoundland Colony (now known as Churchill Falls in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.)[6] Although fur-trader John McLean had been the first westerner to see the Falls in 1841, none were known to have returned since then.[7] The local Innu people had a taboo against visiting it.[7] Bryant had been fascinated with the Grand Falls for several years: "There was something in the idea of this distant cataract—thundering on for ages in that far-off land—which appealed forcibly to one's imagination".[8] Travelling up the Grand River (now the Churchill River), Bryant's group encountered First Nations tribes that had very little contact with white society.[9] After an arduous journey, they reached the Falls on September 2, 1891.[10] To that point, most knowledge of the Falls consisted of vague accounts by natives and McLean's journey of decades earlier; Bryant's detailed account of his trek was published in The Century Magazine in 1892, and attracted widespread attention.[1] The Geographical Society of Philadelphia reprinted it in a book later that year.[11]
Mountaineering
As Bryant was exploring the Grand Falls, another explorer,
Bryant continued to explore the far north in 1897, when he organized and led and expedition to the area around
Death
Bryant died in his home on December 7, 1932, after a brief illness.[3] He was buried in Woodlands Cemetery in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Geographical Society later established a gold medal in his honor, which has been awarded to John Oliver La Gorce in 1948 and Rachel Carson in 1952, among others.
References
- ^ a b c d e f Oberholtzer 1912, p. 81.
- ^ a b Jordan 1921, p. 219.
- ^ a b New York Times 1932.
- ^ New York Times 1929.
- ^ a b c d Williams 1933, p. 249.
- ^ a b Williams 1933, p. 247.
- ^ a b Marsh 2006.
- ^ Bryant 1892, p. 9.
- ^ Bryant 1892, pp. 14–17.
- ^ Bryant 1892, p. 30.
- ^ Bryant 1892.
- ^ Bryant 1895, p. 9.
- ^ Bryant 1895.
- ^ Oberholtzer 1912, p. 82.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved February 13, 2024.
- ^ Bryant 1913, pp. 1–2.
Sources
- "P.F. Rothermel, Noted Lawyer, Dead". The New York Times. May 26, 1929. p. 27.
- "H. G. Bryant is Dead; Peary Arctic Aide". The New York Times. December 8, 1932. p. 26.
- Bryant, Henry Grier (1892). A Journey to the Grand Falls of Labrador. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Geographical Society of Philadelphia. OCLC 8302962.
- Bryant, Henry Grier (1895). The Peary Auxiliary Expedition of 1894 (PDF). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Geographical Society of Philadelphia. OCLC 8302968.
- Bryant, Henry Grier (January 1913). "An Exploration in Southeastern Labrador". The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Philadelphia. 11 (1): 1–15.
- Jordan, John W. (1921). Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania Biography. Vol. 13. New York, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. OCLC 615509.
- Marsh, James (2006). "Churchill Falls". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
- Oberholtzer, Ellis Paxson (1912). Philadelphia: a History of the City and its People. Vol. IV. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. OCLC 1625418.
- Henry Grier Bryant Correspondence Books at Dartmouth College Library
- Williams, Frank E. (December 1933). "Henry Grier Bryant". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 23 (4): 247–250. JSTOR 2560611.