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The Naming of Alaska

Explorers: "A"
These biographies are from Marcus Baker's monumental Geographic Dictionary of Alaska, published in 1902 by the United States Geological Survey. It detailed the origin of thousands of geographical place names in the Territory of Alaska, and provided brief biographies of about 120 of the people who had given the names described.
Index | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I-J | K | L | M | N | P | R | S | T | V | W | Z

Abercrombie, 1884, 1898-99

    In the spring of 1898, by direction of the Secretary of War, three military expeditions were organized for exploring the interior of Alaska. The second of these expeditions was under the command of Capt. William R. Abercrombie, U. S. A., who had in 1884 ascended the Copper river to latitude 60° 41' and afterwards visited Port Valdes, in Prince William sound. Abercrombie was directed to organize his party at Valdes and then explore the valley of the Copper river and its tributaries and the country northward to the Tanana. Mr. F. C. Schrader, of the United States Geological Survey, was attached to his party as geologist. Schrader's report was published in 1900 in the Twentieth Annual Report of the Geological Survey, Part VII, pp. 341-423. Abercrombie's report was published in July, 1899, in War Department, Adjutant General's Office, No. XXV, Report of Explorations in Alaska, pp. 295-351. It was also published in 1900 in a 4° volume entitled Compilation of Narratives of Explorations in Alaska, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1900, a work which seems to have come from the Senate Committee on Military Affairs.
    Captain Abercrombie continued the work of exploration in 1899 under instructions, inter alia, to construct a military road from Valdes to Fort Egbert on the Yukon. Mr. Oscar Rohn accompanied the party as topographer and geologist. For Abercrombie's report see the above-cited compilation, pp. 755-766; also separately printed, with numerous illustrations, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1900. Rohn's report was published in 1900 in the Twenty-first Annual Report of the Geological Survey, Part 11, pp. 393-440.

Allen, 1885

    Lieut. (now Major) Henry Tureman Allen, U. S. A., who was graduated from West Point in 1882, made a journey of exploration through central Alaska in 1885. Leaving Nuchek on March 20, he ascended the Copper river, crossed to and descended the Tanana to its mouth, thence traveled north to the Koyukuk, ascended it some distance, and then descended to its mouth and arrived at St. Michael August 29, whence he returned to San Francisco. His report, with accompanying maps, was published in 1887 as Senate Ex. Doc. No. 125, Forty-ninth Congress, second session.

Archimandritof, 1848-1850

    Towards the close of the Russian occupation of Alaska, Captain Archimandritof commanded one of its vessels in the colonies. He made surveys in Kenai peninsula and around Kodiak in about 1850, but published nothing. It is probable that some of his results were used in Tebonkof's atlas. Copies of his manuscript maps were in use by the Russian skippers and others at the time of the purchase, and some fragments reached the Coast Survey. A survey by him of Graham harbor (Port Graham), in Cook inlet, was published in the Coast Survey atlas of Harbor Charts, 1869.