The Diary: An Overview of Putnam's Journey
George Putnam's diary is filled with daily observations of the environment, temperature, and magnetism measurements. He focuses on his day-to-day life, travelling over ice to reach new test sites, and sometimes moongazing at night.
His visual observations are recorded in his diary, describing towering walls of ice and deep crevases. Such encounters are recorded in his photo album containing pictures from his trips to the arctic between 1896-1898.
(The following images are solely from the 1896 expedition).
"Deepest crevasse about 50 ft to surface of water...magnificent blue color on walls"
"Beautiful view of perpendicular walls of jagged ice rising from water...many seals and birds in sight"
Putnam, page 39
On this expedition, Putnam and other scientists were working independently of Peary's journey to extract the meteorite. On his way to the meteorite site at the Umanak settlement, Peary dropped off the small party of scientists, including Putnam, on August 5th. As a result, there is little mention of Peary and the Hope in Putnam's diary as they functioned rather independently.
Putnam and the other scientists devoted their full days to collecting measurements and travelling to new sites. He blended this with qualitative descriptions of the Inuit people they encountered: their clothing, homes, kayaks, trade interactions, etc.
"Aug. 16 ...Dinner and supper at Governor's...in evening play "Gasoline" a sort of pool - and then singing etc."
"Aug. 17 Made topographical sketch and worked on records..."
"Aug. 18 Magnetic obs[ervations] attempted twice...at night, but too cloudy..."
Putnam, page 30
Overall, in his diary, Putnam recorded the casual actions of his everyday life. He seemed to not worry much about any intended audience, or about presenting a message through his writing; it is more so a brief and direct account of what his days were like. Recording the magnificence of the Arctic was also clearly important to Putnam, as evidenced by his writing and extensive photography.