1879-1933

Danish Explorer and Ethnologist

Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen was a Danish explorer and ethnologist who participated in several Arctic expeditions through Greenland. He also completed an exceptionally long expedition that began in Greenland, proceeded to Canada, and ended in Alaska. During these expeditions he studied and recorded the migration and culture of the Eskimo.

Rasmussen was born to a Danish missionary father and an Eskimo mother on June 7, 1879, in Jakobshavn, Greenland, located in the west central part of the country. He attended the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and married Dagmar Andersen; together they had one son and two daughters. From 1902-04, Rasmussen participated in expeditions to northwestern Greenland, where he encountered the Polar Eskimo. His command of the Eskimo language and his familiarity with the culture gave him a clear advantage as he studied them. In 1905, he examined the possibility of...