College Fjord, Prince William Sound, Alaska

College Fjord, Alaska 

N 61° 12’  W 147° 47’ 

In 1898, railroad tycoon Edward Harriman (who figures largely in another post) was told by his doctor to take a vacation.  He decided to explore the coast of Alaska by steamer and invited a ‘dream team’ of naturalists (including John Muir), geologists, biologists, botanists, ornithologists, photographers (including Edward Curtis), artists, and writers to join him.  On May 31^st, 1899, the Harriman Alaska Expedition steamed out of Seattle on the newly remodeled George W. Elder and headed north through the Inside Passage.  In June 1899, the expedition arrived at Prince William Sound, a pristine wilderness of fjords surrounded by dozens of glaciers rolling into the frozen valleys to the water’s edge.  They named one of the arms of the sound ‘College Fjord’ and named its glaciers after prestigious eastern colleges.  The glaciers on the northwest side of the fjord are named after women’s colleges: Barnard, Holyoke, Wellesley, Vassar, Bryn Mawr, and Smith.  On the southeast side, the glaciers are named after men’s colleges: Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Williams, and Amherst.  Photographer Edward Curtis documented the newly-discovered glaciers.

Today, luxury cruise ships take thousands of tourists into College Fjord each year.  My wife and I took such a cruise in September 2006.  While the ship slowly passed the giant rivers of ice, I snapped pictures with my little point-and-shoot - quite a bit smaller that the camera Curtis must have used.  We were told that the glaciers of College Fjord are slowly retreating, particularly on the southeast side, and that this has less to do with conditions at the bottom of the glaciers than it does up at the ice fields that feed the glaciers.  As the climate of Alaska warms, the lower elevation ice fields shrink, and the glaciers retreat.  I thought it would be interesting to see Curtis’ pictures from 1899 alongside mine from 2006.  As luck would have it, the views are similar enough to see how the glaciers have changed in the intervening 107 years.  Here is a tour of the College Fjord in a clockwise direction starting with the women's colleges and ending with the men's.

Wellesley Glacier in 1899. The George W. Elder steams by.
Photo: Edward S. Curtis

Wellesley Glacier in 2006  Photo: B. Perry

The Vassar Glacier in 1899.  Photo: Edward S. Curtis

The Vassar Glacier in 2006.  Photo: B. Perry

The Bryn Mawr in 1899.  Photo: Edward S. Curtis

The Bryn Mawr in 2006.  Photo: B. Perry

The Smith Glacier in 1899.  Photo: Edward S. Curtis

The Smith Glacier in 2007.  Photo: B. Perry

The Harvard Glacier in 1899.  Photo: Edward S. Curtis

The Harvard Glacier in 2006.  Photo: B. Perry

The Yale Glacier in 1899.  Photo: Edward S. Curtis

The Yale in 2006. Photo: B. Perry
Note: the peak in the center is in the far left of the Curtis photograph.

Harvard and Yale Glaciers in 1899.  Photo: Edward S. Curtis

Harvard and Yale Glaciers in 2006.
 Note how far up the valley the Yale has retreated.
Photo: B. Perry

Amherst and Crescent Glaciers in 1899.  Photo: Edward S. Curtis

The Amherst and Crescent Glaciers in 2007.  Photo: B. Perry

Question of the Day: Why isn't there a Princeton Glacier in College Fjord?

Burroughs, J. (1901). The Harriman Alaska expedition; Narrative, glaciers, natives; Volume I. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company.


University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections – Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899