Cornelius Crane Pacific Expedition

The Illyria yacht, property of Cornelius Crane

The Cornelius Crane Pacific Expedition was privately sponsored by Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane, and the Field Museum of Natural History institutionally sponsored the expedition. Beginning November 1928, the expedition, led by Cornelius Crane in the Illyria yacht, covered over 30,000 miles along the South Pacific, coasts along Asia, North Pacific, and west coasts of Canada.[1] The expedition was funded primarily with the intent of making an accurate record of specimens and obtaining particular specimens such as sea serpents, cassowaries, cormorants, as well as an array of different reptiles and amphibians.[2] When their expedition ended in late September 1929, they brought back with them over 16,000 specimens.[3][4]

Funding

Cornelius Vanderbilt Crane was a benefactor of the Field Museum of Natural History and known philanthropist with an interest in exploring the world. The expedition was initially planned to be a trip for pleasure, but Cornelius Crane offered to fund it for the Field Museum.[5][6][7] The expedition was institutionally sponsored by the Field Museum.[2]

Crew

A Man caries a 8 ft long stick horizontally with a sloth clinging to the other end.
KP Schmidt carries a sloth on a pole
Photographer Sidney Shurcliff with Akeley Camera aboard the Illyria
Photographer Sidney Shurcliff with Akeley Camera aboard the Illyria

With Cornelius Crane as the leader of this expedition. The captain and navigator was Seldon B. Boutilier an man who had 30 years of experience at sea.[8] Field Museum staff made up the core of the scientific team with herpetologist Karl P. Schmidt was appointed Head of Scientific Staff; Walter A. Weber, ornithologist and illustrator; and Frank C. Wonder, taxidermist and preparator.[9] Also joining the crew was Harvard bacteriologist and immunologist William L. Moss, who served as a physician and wanted to study tropical diseases and blood types while on the expedition.[10] Dr Albert W Herre, ichthyologist and professor at Stanford University, also joined the expedition. Sidney N. Shurcliff, a friend of Cornelius Crane, photographed and filmed much of the expedition.[11] He was credited as being one of the first photographers to successfully film underwater coral, which he did during the expedition at some reefs at the Tropics of Capricorn.[12] While only Shurcliff was documented as official photographer, five men are known to have taken over 500 photographs were made of people, art, architecture, and everyday life in New Guinea.[13] Murry N. Fairbank and Charles R. Peavy, friends of Cornelius Crane, also accompanied the expedition.

Expedition journey

Illyria construction and departure

The yacht Illyria was built with the expedition in mind. Cornelius Crane Sr. gifted its construction to his son.[14] The yacht was built to accommodate the space required for the scientific expedition. On September 14, 1928, the Illyria was brought from Italy to New York. The yacht set sail the next month, after stocking the yacht with the necessary supplies, on November 16.[15] The route of this expedition recalls that followed by Darwin as recorded in his Voyage of the Beagle.[16]

Route

Map shows a route departing Boston, traveling south along the coast of North America, passing through the Panama Canal before making a ring around the pacific ocean.
Line drawing Map of Pacific Ocean islands itinerary of Crane Expedition. Field Museum of Natural History. CSZ59360

Throughout the route, the Illyria experienced trouble with radio messages.[17][18]

Illyria return

After 11 months, the Illyria arrived at Boston on October 16, 1929. It was a total of 32,000 nautical miles.

Notable collections

The specimens collected during this expedition was then given to the Field Museum of Natural History upon their return. On the expedition there was a total of 881 mammals, 1,200 birds, 12,000 fishes, 1,075 insects, 500 crustaceans, 300 mollusks, 100 worms, 50 echinoderms, and 2,008 reptiles and amphibians collected.

Birds

At the time of the expedition the cassowary was still a fairly new "discovery" for the Field Museum of Natural History. More information and research was desired to be collected on cassowaries. The Crane Pacific Expedition collected some specimen of cassowaries. Those on board the Illyria talked about consuming the cassowary meat during the expedition.[19]

Fish

There was one new family, seven new genera, one new subgenus, and 51 new species collected.[20]

Mammals

Frank C. Wonder, collector and taxidermist on the expedition, collected all four of the only specimens recorded of the Darwin's Galápagos mouse on the Galapagos Islands from the 12–16 January 1929.[21]

Reptiles and amphibians

The New Guinea Crocodile (Crocodylus novaeguineae) was announced to be a new species discovered by the Field Museum of Natural History.[22]

References

  1. ^ Shurcliff, Sidney N. (1942-10-26). "Invasion Planning". Life Magazine. Vol. 13, no. 17. p. 18. Retrieved 2025-07-28.
  2. ^ a b The Christian Science Monitor 1928-11-01: Vol 20 Iss 288. Internet Archive. 1928-11-01.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ Harvard Alumni Bulletin. Harvard Alumni Association. 1929.
  4. ^ Field Museum of Natural History (1930–1943). Field Museum news. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Chicago : Field Museum of Natural History. p. 3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  5. ^ Ingersoll, Ernest (1928). Explorers Journal. Explorers Club.
  6. ^ Webb, Virginia-Lee. "Official/Unofficial Images: Photographs from the Crane Pacific Expedition, 1928-1929". BYUH Pacific Island Studies. 20 (4) – via BYU Hawaii.
  7. ^ Times, Special to The New York (1962-07-10). "CORNELIUS CRANE, EXPLORER, WAS 57; Leader in '28 of Expedition to South Seas Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  8. ^ a b "Jungle islands: the "Illyria" in the South Seas". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2025-07-23.
  9. ^ Field Museum of Natural History.; History, Field Museum of Natural (1979). Field Museum of Natural History bulletin. Vol. v. 50 (1979). [Chicago, Ill.]: The Museum.
  10. ^ Medical Journal and Record. Medical Journal and Record Publishing Company. 1928.
  11. ^ Schurcliff, Sydney N (Oct 26, 1942). "Letters to the Editors". Life: 18 – via Google Books.
  12. ^ Elias, Ann (2019-04-04). Coral Empire: Underwater Oceans, Colonial Tropics, Visual Modernity. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-1-4780-0446-2.
  13. ^ Webb, Virginia- Lee (1997). "OFFICIAL/UNOFFICIAL IMAGES: PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE CRANE PACIFIC EXPEDITION, 1928-1929". Pacific Studies. 20 (4): 103 – via Internet Archive.
  14. ^ "La Crane Pacific Expedition 1928-1929 (1)". Détours des Mondes. Retrieved 2025-07-30.
  15. ^ Bocchiaro, Robin Donovan (2024-09-20). "The Crane Pacific Expedition". Foxtrot Firefly's Research Report. Retrieved 2025-07-30.
  16. ^ E, G.A. (1931). ""Exploring for Science"". Library Science. 14 (4): 5–6 – via Google Books.
  17. ^ "NEWS DISPELS FEARS FOR YACHT ILLYRIA; Messages From Crane Expedition Received as Recently as a Week Ago. (Published 1929)". 1929-02-10. Retrieved 2025-07-30.
  18. ^ "Field Expedition Ship Proceeds. (Published 1929)". 1929-02-12. Retrieved 2025-07-30.
  19. ^ Field Museum of Natural History (1930–1943). Field Museum news. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Chicago : Field Museum of Natural History. p. 1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  20. ^ Herre, Albert William Christian Theodore (1936). Fishes of the Crane Pacific expedition (PDF). Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. pp. 7–12.
  21. ^ Osgood, Wilfred Hudson (1929). A new rodent from the Galapagos Islands. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Chicago.
  22. ^ Schmidt,  Karl Patterson. Notes on New Guinean Crocodiles. 1932, https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.2886.

Further reading

  • Field Museum of Natural History. Chicago, Illinois (1928-1929), Jungle Islands (Reel 1), retrieved 2025-07-26
  • Field Museum of Natural History. Chicago, Illinois (1928-1929), Jungle Islands (Reel 2), retrieved 2025-07-26
  • Herre,  Albert W. New Fishes Obtained by the Crane Pacific Expedition. 1935, https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.3007.
  • Library, The Field Museum (2009-06-08), Several men on a beach, retrieved 2025-07-30
  • Linsley, E. G.; Usinger, R. L. (2022-09-25) [1966-01-31]. "Insects of the Galápagos Islands". Darwin Online. Retrieved 2025-07-30.
  • Mayr,  Ernst, et al. Birds of the Crane Pacific Expedition. Field Museum of Natural History, 1938, https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.2962
  • Schmidt,  Karl Patterson. Reptiles and Amphibians from the Solomon Islands. 1932, https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.3171.
  • “The Crane Pacific Expedition 1928—29: The Sepik River Photographs.” Pacific Arts, no. 1/2, 1990, pp. 91–91. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/23409543. Accessed 25 July 2025.
  • Timothy P. Barnard. “Protecting the Dragon: Dutch Attempts at Limiting Access to Komodo Lizards in the 1920s and 1930s.” Indonesia, no. 92, 2011, pp. 97–123. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.5728/indonesia.92.0097. Accessed 30 July 2025.
  • Webb, Virginia-Lee. Framing Time: Photographs of New Guinea from the Crane Pacific Expedition, 1928-29. 1996.
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