Named in memory of the Danish-Eskimo explorer and ethnologist Knud (Johan Victor) Rasmussen (1879–1933). He first visited the Polar Eskimos in northwestern Greenland in 1902–04. Later he founded the Thule station, which became the starting point of his legendary “Thule expeditions”, during which he eventually visited virtually every Eskimo tribe between Greenland and the Bering Strait. The vast scope and depth of his many-sided scientific studies brought new insights into the ancient Eskimo culture. His many writings opened this fascinating world to the wide public. Knud Rasmussen was a close friend of the discoverer’s paternal grandfather and namesake, a captain in the Royal Danish Navy who frequently sailed in Greenland waters in the 1920s. (M 27124) _ _.