Correspondence, 1884-1987

Correspondence of Donald Baxter MacMillan and Miriam Look MacMillan including letters between Donald and Miriam, and incoming and outgoing correspondence with others about expeditions, including Robert E. Peary’s expedition to the North Pole, 1908-1909, and the Crocker Land Expedition, 1913-17; also includes correspondence concerning writing and publishing, lecturing, and the establishment of the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College in 1967; there is separate run of correspondence from Donald MacMillan to Clifton A. Towle, 1908-1933. Frequent correspondents include Everett Allen, George Borup, Bowdoin College presidents and other personnel, Janet Doubleday, Alfred Fenton, A.W. Greely, Matthew Henson, Katie Hettasch, Robert E. Peary, and Rutherford Platt. There are also letters from many crew members to Donald before he passed away, and Miriam after he passed away. In addition to correspondence to and from Donald and Miriam, there is correspondence between other individuals about the MacMillans, most notably letters and memoranda that appear to originate from the files of various offices of Bowdoin College, including Alumni Relations and Publicity/Communications. The majority of the items in this series are originals, though original carbon copies are also present and some later photocopies of original letters that are not present in the collection. There are occasional typescript transcriptions of handwritten letters. Notes by Miriam can be found enfolded with letters that she felt were particularly important, which contain additional context.