Guide to the Sir George Hubert Wilkins Papers

Biography of Sir George Hubert Wilkins

Sir George Hubert Wilkins, polar explorer, aviator, photographer, cinematographer, naturalist, newspaper correspondent, soldier, consultant to the United States Military, lecturer and author, achieved distinction for his work in the Arctic and Antarctic Regions. Among Wilkins most notable achievements are the following: a pioneer in aeronautical photography and motion picture coverage of war; the navigator of his Lockheed Vega on its historic flight over the Arctic Circle in April 1928; the navigator of his Lockheed Vega on its historic flight over Antarctica in December 1928; passenger aboard the Graf Zeppelin on its around the world flight in 1929; the commander of the submarine Nautilus on its trip to the Arctic Circle in 1931; second-in-command of four Lincoln Ellsworth Antarctic Expeditions in the 1930s; passenger aboard the airship Hindenburg on its maiden voyage to the United States in 1936; the commander of the Alaskan-Canadian section of the contingent searching for lost Soviet aviators in 1937-1938; and consultant to the United States Military on matters of hot and cold weather clothing and survival techniques, submarine travel in the polar regions, Arctic defense systems, and issues related to geography and geology. Sir George Hubert Wilkins was born at Mt. Bryan East, South Australia, on October 31, 1888. Wilkins studied engineering at the Adelaide School of Mines in Australia. Wilkins became interested in photography and cinemagraphics and devoted much time to learning the skills, including working for a year in Sydney, Australia in a tent cinema operation. In 1908, Wilkins was hired by the Gaumont Company of London as a cinematographer and by the London Daily Chronicle as a reporter. In 1910, he learned to fly with the help of Claude Grahame-White, an English flyer and a contemporary of the Wright brothers. In 1912, the Gaumont Company sent Wilkins to Constantinople to photograph and shoot movies of the Balkan War. From early on, Sir Hubert Wilkins was interested in polar exploration, both by airplane and submarine, and the establishment of weather stations in the polar regions. In 1913, he got his first assignment to a polar expedition when Vilhjalmur Stefansson hired him as a photographer for an expedition to the Arctic. From 1913-1916, Wilkins travelled with Stefansson and eventually became second-in-command of the expedition. In 1917, during World War I, Wilkins enlisted in the Australian Flying Corps and was appointed commander of the photograph section of the Australian Forces in France. In 1919, after the war, he was the navigator on the Blackburn Kangaroo during the England to Australia Air Race. Wilkins returned to polar exploration in 1919 by making his first trip to the Antarctic. From 1919-1920, he was second-in-command of the British Imperial Antarctic Expedition. From 1921-1922, Wilkins was chief of the scientific staff and naturalist for the Sir Ernest Shackleton Quest Antarctic Expedition. In 1922, Wilkins was hired by the Quakers to travel to Russia and Eastern Europe to report on the works of the Society of Friends' Emergency and War Victims' Relief Committee. This 1922-1923 trip was also a secret fact finding mission for the United States Government. The British Museum decided to sponsor an expedition to Australia. Wilkins agreed to be the commander of the Wilkins- Australia and Islands Expedition. From 1923-1925, Wilkins examined vegetation and animal life, collected specimens for the museum, and lived for a time with Australian aborigines. From 1926-1928, Wilkins was commander of the Wilkins-Detroit Arctic Expeditions sponsored by the Detroit Aviation Society and the Detroit News. It was during these expeditions that Wilkins and Ben Eielson made their historic first trans-Arctic airplane flight from Point Barrow, Alaska to Spitzbergen. This event occurred in April of 1928. For his accomplishment, Wilkins was knighted by King George V of England. Wilkins returned to Antarctica during the period 1928-1930 with financial support from William Randolph Hearst. Wilkins and Eielson made their historic first airplane flight over the Antarctic in 1928. During a break in 1929, Wilkins was a passenger aboard the Graf Zeppelin during its around the world trip. Wilkins, under the sponsorship of William Randolph Hearst, was to report on technical aspects of the zeppelin's flight.On August 30, 1929, after completing the zeppelin flight, Wilkins married Suzanne Bennett, an Australian actress. They had met in New York during a reception honoring Wilkins and Eielson after their flight over the Arctic Sea. The couple had no children during their twenty nine years of marriage. In 1931, Sir Hubert Wilkins commanded the Nautilus submarine expedition to the Arctic. This was the first submarine to travel under the Arctic pack ice. During the 1930s, Wilkins travelled to the Antarctic four times as second-in-command of the Lincoln Ellsworth Antarctic Flight Expeditions. In 1937, Wilkins was in charge of the Alaskan-Canadian search section which was looking for the lost Soviet Polar Expedition which was commanded by Sigimund Levanevsky. In 1940-1941, Wilkins was sent to Europe and the Far East on special missions for the United States government. Wilkins flew to Europe to discuss U.S. contracts for supplying plane parts. In the Far East, he visited Japan, China, Burma, and Thailand on an economic fact-finding mission. In 1942, the United States Army hired Wilkins as a consultant. Wilkins worked primarily for the Army's Quartermaster Corps in the areas of hot and cold weather clothing and survival techniques. He also assisted other military departments in geographic and geological research, aviation research, and submersible craft research. Wilkins was a consultant to the United States Military until his death in 1958. From the 1920's until his death in 1958, Wilkins travelled throughout the United States and other nations lecturing about polar exploration. During his lifetime he wrote several works, including Undiscovered Australia, Flying the Arctic, Under the North Pole, and Our Search for the Lost Soviet Aviators. Wilkins was affiliated with organizations such as the Explorers' Club, The Circumnavigators' Club, and the Arctic Institute of North America. Wilkins died on December 1, 1958 at the age of seventy. On March 17, 1959, the nuclear submarine USS Skate surfaced at the North Pole and the crew conducted a ceremony in which Sir George Hubert Wilkins's ashes were scattered on the Arctic Ice.

Scope and Content

The Sir George Hubert Wilkins Papers, ca. 1908-1987, include correspondence, reports, photographs, newspaper clippings, and artifacts documenting Wilkins's career as a photographer, polar explorer, aviator, and consultant to the United States Military. Included in the collection is a scrapbook concerning the Graf Zeppelin historic flight around the world, motion picture film documenting Wilkins expeditions, correspondence and biographical material of Suzanne Wilkins, files concerning Wilkins interest in telepathy and extra sensory perception, and files of the Wilkins Memorial Foundation. Further information on the scope and content of the collection is located at the series level.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Use

The Sir George Hubert Wilkins Papers are available for use in the reading room of The Ohio State University Archives Building, 2700 Kenny Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210. The reading room is open to the public, 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., M-F. Appointments are preferred. Please contact the polar curator at 614-688-8173 or e-mail
kissel.4@osu.edu.

Restrictions on Access

The Sir George Hubert Wilkins Papers are open to public research under the
rules and regulations of The Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

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Chain of Custody

Sir George Hubert Wilkins passed away on December 1, 1958. Upon his death, his collection of papers, artifacts, and memorabilia, passed to his wife, Suzanne Bennett Wilkins. They had no children, so upon Suzanne’s death in 1975, she willed everything to family friend and Wilkins’ last secretary, Winston Ross. This included the Wilkins’ farmhouse in Montrose, PA. in which Ross and his wife Marley Stevens lived. In 1980, Ross and Stevens met philatelists Paul Rodzianko and Dr. David Larson. In 1981, the Wilkins Memorial Foundation was established as a charitable organization. Stevens was the president, Ross was the vice-president, Rodzianko was the treasurer and Larson was the secretary. The primary goal of the foundation was to raise money to create a museum dedicated to the legacy of Sir George Hubert Wilkins. Subsequently, Ross entered into an agreement in which he sold Rodzianko polar covers (envelopes) including the letters within. It is known that Winston Ross sold other collection materials around this same time, such as Wilkins' car and antarctic sledge. Rodzianko entered into an agreement with Larson, resulting in Rodzianko holding the Antarctic covers and Larson holding the Arctic covers. In 1983, Ross and Stevens engaged a Pennsylvania attorney and sued Rodzianko and Larson, claiming that the Wilkins Memorial Foundation had leant the covers to Rodzianko and Larson for research purposes, and demanded that they return them. Rodzianko and Larson denied this, stating that Ross had sold the covers to them. Rodzianko and Larson engaged attorneys in Pennsylvania and New York and countersued from two different New York court venues. As a result of the lawsuits, Winston Ross was forced to divest himself of the remaining Wilkins material. The Pennsylvania court ruled that an appropriate archival repository was to be selected by Larson and Rodzianko. Additionally, the court found that Rodzianko and Larson owned their polar covers, but were to transfer any non-philatelic material to the same repository. Dr. David Larson took the initiative in finding a suitable archival repository. He called Ohio State’s Institute of Polar Studies (now the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center), and spoke with the Center’s assistant director Peter Anderson, who facilitated the acquisition of the Wilkins collection at OSU. In 1985, OSU purchased the collection from Winston Ross for $125,000. OSU Libraries staff and students drove to Pennsylvania to collect the materials. Due to the enormous size of the collection, as well as the haphazard storage conditions of the collection, some material was overlooked and remained in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile Larson and Rodzianko identified the non-philatelic items in their possession and delivered them to the Pennsylvania court. These items were transferred to the repository and were processed as supplements to the original Wilkins collection. In addition, Larson produced high-quality photocopies of the philatelic items that he and Rodzianko retained. These copies were transferred to the Pennsylvania court and subsequently to the repository. The New York State lawsuits were withdrawn. In 1996, Winston Ross died and all of his possessions, including what remained of the Wilkins collection, as well as the Pennsylvania farmhouse, passed to his wife Marley Stevens. Stevens died in 1998, and left everything to her youngest son. He promptly put the property and its contents up for auction. Prior to the auction, Stevens’ oldest son S. Michael Ross, went to the farm and took material related to Wilkins. He held it in his home in Michigan until 2014, when he transferred this material to OSU. Upon its receipt, the repository reprocessed the Wilkins collection. The repository acknowledges the Australian author Jeff Maynard. His meticulous research and dedication to the accurate re-telling of Sir Hubert's incredible life assisted the University in it's discussions with Dr. David Larson and S. Michael Ross.

Preferred Citation

[Box number, folder number], Sir George Hubert Wilkins Papers, Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, The Ohio State University.

Processing Information

The Wilkins Papers were originally processed by Kenneth M. Grossi, November 1991, revised January 1994. Two supplemental inventories were created after the initial processing project was completed. In 2014, the repository acquired additional Wilkins collection materials from S. Michael Ross, son of Winston Ross. The collection was reprocessed in 2015 by Jeff Thomas, incorporating this additional material as well as other Wilkins material acquired since the original collection was processed.

Detailed Description of The Collection