Descriptions compiled by N. Boneham, Assistant Archivist with assistance from R. Stancombe and reference to
William Parker Snow was born on 27 November 1817 at Poole. He was educated at the Royal Naval School in Greenwich and was apprenticed in a merchant vessel at the age of thirteen. After travelling in Australia and the South Seas, he returned to Britain where he joined the Royal Navy, later obtaining a discharge after saving a companion from a shark. He then embarked on several unsuccessful business ventures, including managing a hotel in Australia and a club in Italy, before becoming more involved in literary pursuits, transcribing the first two volumes of
On his return from a year in America, Snow was appointed clerk in the schooner
In 1854, Snow was placed in command of the Patagonian Missionary Society's tender
The collection comprises of material relating to the British Franklin Search Expedition, 1850 (leader Charles Forsyth), correspondence by Snow and papers relating to the publication of
The collection is split into three sub-fonds comprising of expedition material, correspondence and papers respectively
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Clive Holland
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In 1845 Sir John Franklin sailed north in command of the British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition. Sent by the Admiralty the two ships HMS
Many searches were conducted for the missing expedition, during the course of which the main facts regarding the route taken and the final fate of the expedition were established.
The British Franklin Search Expedition, 1850 (leader Charles Forsyth) was sponsored by Jane, Lady Franklin and public subscription to search for the missing expedition in the region of Boothia Peninsula and Prince Regent Inlet. The expedition landed at Port Leopold to examine the site of Sir James Ross's wintering. Heavy ice hampered their progress through the inlet and they were unable to pass beyond Fury Point instead they turned back and crossed Barrow Strait to Cape Riley on Devon Island. There, they learned of the discovery of relics of the Franklin expedition at Cape Riley and of the discovery of Franklin's winter quarters on nearby Beechey Island. The expedition returned to Britain to convey the news to Lady Franklin and the Admiralty.
Chronological
The Institute holds several archival collections containing material relating to this Franklin search expedition see SPRI collections GB 015 Sophia Cracroft, GB 015 N A Cartwright GB 015 Charles Duncan, GB 015 Charles Forsyth, GB 015 Jane Franklin, GB 015 William Hogarth, GB 015 Sir William Edward Parry, GB 015 Charles Philips, and GB 015 Charles Richard Weld
The correspondence relates to the voyage of
The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by recipient
Correspondence by Snow can also be found amongst the Richardson-Voss collection held by the Institute (MS 1503/41/16;RV SNOW Letter to John Richardson [Sending copy of
The collection covers
Chronological