Early Relationship between the Crawford Family and Stefansson
This page illustrates the relationship between Allan Crawford’s parents, specifically his mother, and who is assumed to be Vilhjalmur Stefansson via the analysis of a letter. Although the letter does not explicitly say who it is from, context clues can be used to assume that the sender is Stefansson because it is clearly coming from the orchestrator of the expedition. The beginning of the letter states “I do not know whether I dreamed it or whether it really happened, but I have a strong feeling that about a month ago I received a number of letters just as I was rushing out of the Harvard Club. I glanced at them in a taxi and noted that one of them was from you.” Thus, it can be inferred that Crawford’s mother likely wrote to Steffanson looking for more information about the expedition as she was likely worried for her son or at least wanted to be more informed regarding the risks of the expedition. This letter was written on November 24, 1922 and just one of several letters between Mrs. Crawford and Stefansson.
While it was clear from all of the artifacts discussing the Wrangel Island expedition that Stefansson was very confident about the success of the expedition, the extent he was willing to go to claim that the men on the expedition will be safe was astonishing. Steafansson did not just say that the trip would be safe, but rather went as far as to say that “the men on Wrangel Island are just as safe as if they were equally isolated on a tropical island. There is, therefore, no more need to worry about them than if they were in some European city or any ordinary place and were merely not in the habit of communicating with you. In other words, the only worries you need have for Allan are the same which he may reasonably have about you, and his chance of being safe and well next fall is about the same as your own.” Thus, in an attempt to calm normal maternal nerves, Stefansson makes bold comparisons of the expedition to make the argument that it is safe. While it is not clear if he truly believed this statement or was just hoping to calm Mrs. Crawford down, the actual story of Wrangel Island turned out to be far from similar to a European city of a tropical island. It is thus useful to analyze this letter to truly understand the emotional toll that the Wrangel Island expedition took on the Crawford family as they were likely not prepared for the eventual news that they had lost their son.
Interestingly, this letter was not the first letter between Mrs. Crawford and Stefansson as there are a couple other letters found from the previous year that also discussed the safety of the trip. In these letters, Stefansson again assured Mrs. Crawford that her son is safe and Mrs. Crawford responded thanking Stefansson and letting him know that her worries had been successfully assuaged. Thus, this letter is incredibly important in telling the story of Wrangel Island and its impact on the family members because it shows how much Stefansson tried to convince Mrs. Crawford that she had no reason to worry through its comparison to a European city and the fact that it was not even the first time he needed to calm down her nerves.