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Donald B. MacMillan
Born: November 10th, 1874 in Provincetown, Massachusetts - Died: September 7th, 1970, buried in Provincetown - Married: March 18th, 1935 to Miriam Norton Look
Interesting Trivia:
- Made more than 30 expeditions
- Put together dictionary of Inuktikut language
- The Donald B. MacMillan Collection, 1884-1975 can be found in the Bowdoin College Library Special Collections
- Served in the Navy during World War I and World War II
His Story:
Donald Baxter MacMillan’s relationship with the sea started at an early age. At an early age, his father took him sailing and this was the start of his lasting affinity for sailing. This love did not diminish when he lost his father to the sea when Donald was nine years old. His mother died when he was twelve and after living with the family of Captain Murdick McDonald in Provincetown for two years, he went to live with his sister Letitia and her husband Winthrop C. Fogg in Freeport, Maine. He went to the Bowdoin College and studied for his geology degree. After graduation he became a teacher at various schools in Maine and Massachusetts, teaching Latin, Physical Education, and Mathematics.
He also taught seamanship and navigation at a summer camp for boys, which he had established.
He caught the attention of explorer Robert E. Peary when he saved nine people from drowning after their boats were wrecked and was asked to join Peary on his expedition to attempt to reach the North Pole. MacMillan refused as he had prior commitments. However, three years later, in 1908, Peary asked him again and he was able to accompany the expedition. The expedition was cut short for MacMillan due to frozen heels.
In the following years he traveled around in Labrador, carrying out ethnological studies among the Innu and Inuit. In 1913, he organized and commanded his own expedition to northern Greenland, known as the Crocker Land Expedition. Unfortunately, he got stranded and did not return until 1917. He joined the US Navy in World War I, but after the war raised money to build a ship that would be strong and easily maneuverable through the Arctic waters. The ship “Bowdoin” was launched in 1921 and used for further Arctic exploration and research. The “Bowdoin” became a familiar sight in the Arctic communities over the following years.
In 1935, he got married to Miriam Norton Look who he had known for a long time as she was the daughter of his long-time friends Jerome and Amy Look. She convinced a reluctant MacMillan to take her on his Arctic travels.
When World War II broke out, MacMillan served again in the Navy, this time in the Hydrographic Office in Washington, D.C. The “Bowdoin” was still serving in Greenland’s waters.
His later life was spent with continuous trips to the Arctic, either taking researchers north or carrying supplies for the MacMillan-Moravian School he had established in 1929. He was a friend of the peoples of Labrador and Greenland and helped them wherever he could.
His last journey to the North, he took when he was 80 years old, in 1954. For his achievements, he was awarded the Bowdoin Prize, given "once in each five years to the graduate or former member of the College, or member of its Faculty at the time of the award, who shall have made during the period the most distinctive contribution in any field of human endeavor."
In his life he had been an explorer, sailor, teacher, philanthropist, researcher, and lecturer and had traveled over 300,000. He pioneered the use of radios, airplanes, and electricity in the Arctic, and brought back films and thousands of photographs of Arctic scenes.
Te Papa Whale exhibition in Washington, DC