Greely, Adolphus Washington (1844–1935)

US soldier, explorer, and scientist. In 1881, he led an army expedition to northeast Ellesmere Island, Canada. A detachment of his expedition sledged to a record northern latitude, 83°24'N. When relief expeditions failed to reach them, however, most of the party starved to death.

The purpose of the 1881 expedition was to make meteorological and other scientific observations, as a contribution to the International Polar Year, 1882–83. J B Lockwood led the detachment that reached the record northern latitude. Two relief expeditions, in 1882 and 1883, failed to reach Greely's base camp, leaving him badly short of provisions. When a third, commanded by W S Schley, finally made contact with him in 1884, only Greely and six of his 24 companions remained alive.

Greely was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts. In 1861 he joined the US army as a private and fought throughout the civil war, after which he was appointed lieutenant in the regular army.

After the Ellesmere Island expedition Greely was made chief signal officer in the US army, and was responsible for introducing telegraph services to Alaska, the Philippine Islands, and elsewhere. He published Three Years of Arctic Service (1885), and books on meteorology and polar exploration.