About Government Documents

Documents generated by individuals while in the employ of government constitute another category of primary textual documents for this Mystery. Most of the documents reproduced under this category are memoranda or letters written by officials of the British Admiralty about the merits of sending the Franklin Expedition, or correspondence from Franklin and other expeditions members back to correspondents at the Admiralty in England. This collection also includes a 1857 letter by Lady Franklin to the Admiralty expressing the views on the search award that was granted to Dr. John Rae.