REAR ADMIRAL RICHARD E. BYRD - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 03/01/1927 - HFSID 297290

RICHARD E. BYRD
He writes a letter to fellow polar explorer Adolphus W. Greely saying that he will send his data on the variation of the Magnetic Compass when he returns to his headquarters in Boston.
Typed Letter signed: "RE Byrd", 1 page, 8½x11. University, Virginia, 1927 March 1. Addressed to General A.W. Greely, Washington, D.C. In full: "I am awfully sorry that I did not get a chance to call on you when I was in Washington the other day. I am most anxious to pay my respects to you. I am very sorry indeed to tell you that I did not get my data on the variation of the Magnetic Compass sufficiently accurate to publish it in a scientific paper. I have not got my figures with me. When I return to my Headquarters at Boston I will look things up and let you hear from me. I am afraid, however, that I will not be settled there for some weeks, as I am very much on the wing these days. I regret very much indeed that I cannot give you a definite answer immediately, but I am sure you understand the situation. With high regard, I am Very sincerely and respectfully yours," Polar explorer Richard E. Byrd (1888-1957) was the first man to fly over both Poles. He and Floyd Bennett had flown over the North Pole on May 9, 1926, for which both received the Congressional Medal of Honor and Byrd was promoted to Commander, and Byrd had flown over the South Pole in November 1929 during his first expedition to Antarctica (1928-1930). Byrd, who established the "Little America" base on his first expedition, would be promoted to Admiral upon his return to the U.S. He would make four subsequent trips to the southern polar regions, continuing until 1956, thirty years after his historic flight over the North Pole. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Adolphus W. Greely (1844-1935) survived two years of Arctic winters without being re-supplied in 1882-1884. He became, by order of Pres. Cleveland, a Brigadier General and Chief of the Signal Corps of the Army in March 1887 of the following year. In that post, he was responsible over the next 20 years for construction of tens of thousands of miles of telegraph lines and submarine cables in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines, Alaska and elsewhere and for the Army's earliest adoption of wireless telegraphy. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Lightly toned. Otherwise, fine condition.