Bottom row left to right: Connell, Brainard, Lt Kislingbury, Lt Greely, Lt Lockwood, Israel, Jewell, Rice
The Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1881–1884 (a.k.a. the Greely Expedition[1]) to Lady Franklin Bay on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic was led by Lieutenant Adolphus Greely, and was promoted by the United States Army Signal Corps. Its purpose was to establish a meteorological-observation station as part of the First International Polar Year, and to collect astronomical and magnetic data. During the expedition, two members of the crew reached a new Farthest North record, but of the original twenty-five men, only seven survived to return.
The expedition was under the auspices of the Signal Corps at a time when the corps' chief disbursements officer, Henry W. Howgate, was arrested for embezzlement. However, that did not deter the planning and execution of the voyage.