When field trips were expeditions

Sitting halfway up a rocky chimney, in the center of the photo, is Comfort Adams, a recent graduate of the Case School of Applied Science. He’s posing for his Case classmate, John Morse, the unseen photographer.

They’re at the cabin of John Muir (lower left), the famous naturalist, in the largely unexplored wilds of Alaska in August of 1890. Their professor, Harry Fielding Reid (lower right), led them here to map Glacier Bay, an ice world 6,000 miles from campus.

Happening upon Muir and his hut on what was to be named Muir Inlet was a stroke of luck. Muir offered lodging and guidance until the Case team built its own crude shelter and went busily to work. They had only a few weeks to climb and survey massive, calving glaciers using surveying techniques they had practiced When field trips were expeditions on campus.

That summer research project led to Reid, a professor of math and physics, becoming renowned as America’s first geophysicist. Adams went on to teach at Harvard, where he became Dean of Engineering. Morse was back in time for fall classes. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

In Case’s long history of adventure science, the Reid expedition may be a pinnacle. Lasting vestiges include glaciers named for each member of the team — Adams, Morse, and Reid, as well as Henry Cushing (second from left), Herbert McBride (second from right) and Robert Casement (atop the chimney).

The trekkers also named a 5,500-foot landmark, Mount Case, which overlooks Glacier Bay National Park.