Founded as the private research collection of Vilhjálmur Stefansson, the Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration is an exceptionally rich body of material for research on the history of both the Antarctic and the Arctic. Printed material, some 5,000 volumes, includes published expedition records and diaries, biographies, bibliographies, and general histories. Nearly fifty linear feet of vertical files containing pamphlets, clippings, and ephemera complement the printed volumes. The Collection holds 25,000 photographs, the bulk of which relate to the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913-1918, and hundreds of maps, many of them extremely rare or unique. Finally, it holds more than 225 manuscript collections, of log-books, diaries, correspondence, journals, and the personal papers of many polar explorers.

The Stefansson Collection on Polar Exploration is located in the Rauner Special Collections Library of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. It has, in recent years, undertaken several projects to make materials and knowledge of the materials more well-known and more accessible. All its printed materials and manuscript collections and some of the photographic collections are catalogued. See links on the right