The Ones We Met - Inuit Traditional Knowledge and the Franklin Expedition

The fate of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition was one of the Arctic’s most enduring mysteries, until the wrecks of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were found. This exhibition explores the role of Inuit oral history in solving that mystery. It features photographs, illustrations and an animated map of routes charted by Europeans looking for a Northwest Passage in the 350 years before Franklin’s expedition. Visitors can hear stories of Inuit encounters with Franklin and his men, and of Martin Frobisher’s voyages to Baffin Island in the 1570s.

Developed by the Canadian Museum of History and the Inuit Heritage Trust.

Watercolour illustrations by Heather Campbell, an Inuit artist from Nunatsiavut (Labrador)