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Those three guys have become known as the best preserved ice mummies of the 19th century. Petty Officer John Torrington, Private William Braine and Able Seaman John Hartnell were the first casualties of the doomed Franklin Expedition. They all died in a rather short time span of pneumonia, tuberculosis and lead poisoning and were buried next to each other on Beechey Island in the Canadian Arctic. Their gravestones are still there today.
But they did not become famous until they were exhumed by Professor Owen Beattie and his team in 1984.
I've read the account in Beattie's book "Frozen in time" and just had to paint them. How could they have looked when they were alive? All I have as a guide are photographs of the preserved bodies, and until someone exhumes them again there will be only that very limited number of old photos.
So you can't really call my work an "archeological reconstruction", but an "artistic interpretation".
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But they did not become famous until they were exhumed by Professor Owen Beattie and his team in 1984.
I've read the account in Beattie's book "Frozen in time" and just had to paint them. How could they have looked when they were alive? All I have as a guide are photographs of the preserved bodies, and until someone exhumes them again there will be only that very limited number of old photos.
So you can't really call my work an "archeological reconstruction", but an "artistic interpretation".
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Closest to them that I know of is the American Polar Explorer, Charles Francis Hall, who died suddenly after what seemed a brief illness on his "Polaris" Expedition to the North Pole via Greenland in 1871. Hall (who first became interested in Polar Exploration in the 1860s, and went to Canada to find traces of Franklin's Expedition - and possibly survivors) was buried near his camp in Greenland. In 1967 Chauncey Loomis went to find Hall's final resting place, and opened the coffin. Not as well preserved as the three sailors from Franklin's Expedition, Hall's corpse was still recognizable. It was photographed, and hair samples taken. They showed heavy traces of arsenic. There had been a rumor in 1871 that Hall died of arsenical poisoning, and while his habit of doctoring himself with patent medicines was possibly an explanation, it is very likely he was murdered. There are several possible suspects, but the most likely was the German-born scientist on the expedition, Dr. Emil Bessels, who represented the Smithsonian Institute, and was jealous of Hall being the leader of this expedition, and resentful that he, a college graduate with several degrees, had to take orders from a comparative ignoramus like Hall. Loomis published his findings, and a full study of Hall's career, in his book "Weird and Tragic Shores" in 1968.

Because I don't know how to explain it in english: tolle Bilder!
Insgesamt find ich das ganze Arbeit um die Expedition spannend. Es berührt mich merkwürdig die (wirklich nicht sehr schönen, ehem) Mumien zu sehen und dann diese liebevolle Darstellung, die ihnen ein Gesicht verleiht und sie als das zeigt, was sie ja mal waren: junge Männer mit einer Geschichte, Familien und Wünschen. Klingt das kitschig... weißt du, was ich mein? Ist irgendwie schwer zu beschreiben.
Jedenfalls total toll gemacht
Insgesamt find ich das ganze Arbeit um die Expedition spannend. Es berührt mich merkwürdig die (wirklich nicht sehr schönen, ehem) Mumien zu sehen und dann diese liebevolle Darstellung, die ihnen ein Gesicht verleiht und sie als das zeigt, was sie ja mal waren: junge Männer mit einer Geschichte, Familien und Wünschen. Klingt das kitschig... weißt du, was ich mein? Ist irgendwie schwer zu beschreiben.
Jedenfalls total toll gemacht


All were very handsome men! You did a wonderful job! I've read the book"Frozen in Time," you have the facial reconstruction perfect or very near it! Personally I hope more people get to see your work. Did Beattie ever see these pictures or their decendents? I think they would be quite pleased! Do you have the pricelist on these?

I have seen photos of the mummies. Belated autopsies suggested they died of a combination of scurvy and possible lead poisoning from the improper canned food that was purchased for the expeditions. They were lucky to die early - later members were forced into cannibalism trying to keep alive.
Their corpses are not the only ones to be fairly well preserved up in the Arctic circle. In 1969 the corpse of American Explorere Charles Francis Hall was exhumed in Greenland, and found to have arsenic in him. Either from patent medicines he used, or by suicide, or by murder - possibly by the German doctor on Hall's Polaris Expedition. Read (if you haven't) Chauncey Loomis's WEIRD AND TRAGIC SHORES.
Their corpses are not the only ones to be fairly well preserved up in the Arctic circle. In 1969 the corpse of American Explorere Charles Francis Hall was exhumed in Greenland, and found to have arsenic in him. Either from patent medicines he used, or by suicide, or by murder - possibly by the German doctor on Hall's Polaris Expedition. Read (if you haven't) Chauncey Loomis's WEIRD AND TRAGIC SHORES.
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