Sir Hubert Wilkins: The Man

Sir Hubert Wilkins (1888-1958) was a contemporary and rival of Admiral Richard E. Byrd and a distinguished polar explorer himself.  Wilkins had several “firsts” to his credit.  He was the first to fly across the Arctic from Point Barrow, Alaska to Spitzbergen, Norway, and in 1928, he was knighted by King George V of England for this feat.  In the same year, Wilkins ventured to Antarctica and with the financial support of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, made the first airplane flight in Antarctica. [Hearst backed Wilkins while The New York Times supported Byrd.]  In 1931, Wilkins commanded the Nautilus submarine in the Arctic and became the first to prove that submarines could move under polar ice.

Wilkins was a popular lecturer and a highly valued consultant to the United States Army in polar clothing and equipment. During his lifetime, Wilkins wrote several works, including Undiscovered Australia, Flying the Arctic, Under the North Pole, and Our Search for the Lost Soviet Aviators.  So important was Wilkins to polar research that in 1959 the United States Navy granted Wilkins’s request to have his ashes scattered at the North Pole by a submarine, the USS Skate. 

The Ohio State University acquired the papers of Sir George Hubert Wilkins in 1985 and in 1988.  They include expeditionary records, photographs, films, and letters and are housed in more than fifty boxes.  Currently, two documentary producers are completing films about Wilkins.

 Sir Hubert Wilkins and Others

  Although Wilkins had significant stature as an expert in polar matters and as a journalist and photographer, he did not have Byrd’s status in America as a public celebrity or as a national hero.  However, his personal wealth and his connections to others allowed Wilkins to lead, as well as to accompany others, on many expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.  Wilkins partnered with such notable explorers as Sir Ernest Shackleton, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, and most prominently with the wealthy American explorer Commander Lincoln Ellsworth.  From 1935 through 1939, Wilkins managed four expeditions to Antarctica for Ellsworth.

Return to Exhibits Page or visit the Papers of Sir George Hubert Wilkins at The Ohio State University