Hinrich Johannes Rink
Encyclopedia
Dr. Hinrich Johannes Rink (26 August 1819 – 15 December 1893) was a Danish geologist
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

, one of the pioneers of glaciology
Glaciology
Glaciology Glaciology Glaciology (from Middle French dialect (Franco-Provençal): glace, "ice"; or Latin: glacies, "frost, ice"; and Greek: λόγος, logos, "speech" lit...

, and the first accurate describer of the inland ice of Greenland
Greenland ice sheet
The Greenland ice sheet is a vast body of ice covering , roughly 80% of the surface of Greenland. It is the second largest ice body in the world, after the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The ice sheet is almost long in a north-south direction, and its greatest width is at a latitude of 77°N, near its...

. Rink, who first came to Greenland in 1848, spent 16 winters and 22 summers in the Arctic region, and became notable for Greenland's development. Becoming a Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...

ic scholar and administrator, he served as Royal Inspector of South Greenland and went on to became Director of the Royal Greenland Board of Trade
Royal Greenland
Royal Greenland A/S is a fishing company in Greenland. The company operates in a number of towns and settlements in Greenland, with 20 fish processing plants and ship bases of local subsidiary units...

. With "Forstanderskaber", Rink introduced the first steps towards Greelandic home rule.

Rink carried out and printed in four volumes the first systematic collection of Greenlandic oral tradition stories. He was the founder of Atuagagdliutit
Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten
Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, usually referred to as AG, is one of two newspapers in Greenland which are distributed nationwide. The newspaper is published twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays....

, the first Kalaallisut language newspaper.

Early years

Rink was born in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

 to Holstein
Holstein
Holstein is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is part of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germany....

 parents. His father was Johannes Rink (1783–1865), a Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 merchant, and his mother was Agnese Margaretha (née Hedde) Rink (1793–1865); both were from Dithmarschen. He had a brother, Johan Jacob Rink (1815–1849).

Initially taught be a private teacher, he later went to study at the Sorø Academy
Sorø Academy
Sorø Academy is a boarding school and public gymnasium located in the small town of Sorø, Denmark. It traces its history back to the 12th century when Bishop Absalon founded a monastery at the site, which was confiscated by the Crown after the Reformation, and ever since, on and off, it has served...

. He studied physics and chemistry at the University of Kiel
University of Kiel
The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today...

, receiving the university's Gold Medal in chemistry in 1843. For a time, he served as Assistant Professor under William Christopher Zeise
William Christopher Zeise
William Christopher Zeise was a Danish organic chemist. He is best known for the first organometallic compound to be synthesized, named Zeise's salt in his honor. He also discovered the xanthates in 1823....

. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark. Founded in 1479, it has more than 37,000 students, the majority of whom are female , and more than 7,000 employees. The university has several campuses located in and around Copenhagen, with the...

. Rink studied medicine during the winter of 1844–45, taking an anatomy course and listening to lectures in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. He was often depressed and vacillated with regard to his future.

Career

At the suggestion of Hans Christian Ørsted
Hans Christian Ørsted
Hans Christian Ørsted was a Danish physicist and chemist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields, an important aspect of electromagnetism...

, it was in Berlin that he received an offer to participate as a mineralogist for the first of the Galathea expeditions aboard the frigate Galathea. The voyage lasted from 1845 through 1847. He was intent on going to Calcutta, but he ended up at the Nicobar Islands
Nicobar Islands
The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean...

, colonized by Denmark at the time, to investigate them geographically. After five months he fell ill with Nicobar Fever, weakening him the rest of his life, and forcing his return to Denmark. On the return trip, he stopped in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

 and Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

, where, in October 1846, he collected geological materials. In 1847, his first major geographical work, "The Nicobarese islands", was published.

From 1848 until 1851, with public support, he went to Western Greenland for geological and glaciological studies at Upernavik
Upernavik
Upernavik is a small town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in northwestern Greenland, located on a small island of the same name. With 1,129 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the thirteenth-largest town in Greenland. Due to the small size of the settlement, everything is within walking distance...

 and Umanak
Uummannaq
Uummannaq is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality, in northwestern Greenland. With 1,299 inhabitants as of 2010, it is the eleventh-largest town in Greenland, and is home to the country's most northerly ferry terminal...

. Here, he lived among the Kalaallit
Kalaallit
Kalaallit is the contemporary term in the Kalaallisut language for the indigenous people living in Greenland, also called the Kalaallit Nunaat. The singular term is kalaaleq. The Kalaallit are a part of the Arctic Inuit people. The language spoken by Inuit in Greenland is Kalaallisut.Historically,...

 which gave him an opportunity to study them. But his objective was to create a map of Greenland based on the surveys that he performed and those of others. He was able to survey large areas of Western Greenland's fjords and their glaciers. In the last year, he spent some time in Ilulissat
Ilulissat
Ilulissat is a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland, located approximately north of the Arctic Circle. With the population of 4,546 as of 2010, it is the third-largest settlement in Greenland, after Nuuk and Sisimiut....

 and sailed to Paakitsoq, a bay in Western Greenland. He travelled by sledge to Sermeq Kujalleq
Jakobshavn Isbræ
Jakobshavn Isbræ, also known as the Jakobshavn Glacier and Sermeq Kujalleq is a large outlet glacier in West Greenland. It is located near the Greenlandic town of Ilulissat and ends at the sea in the Ilulissat Icefjord....

 in the spring of 1851. He mapped the Greenland coast, and made the first geological map of it. Rink’s surveys are notable as the first in a series of ice margin change surveys that have lasted over 150 years. Rink returned to Copenhagen in 1851 where he took a seat in a Commission that dealt with the trade monopoly in Greenland. On behalf of the Commission, he went back to Greenland in 1852, and subsequently published the book About the monopoly of trade in Greenland.

The following year, he entered the service of the monopoly trade and was the first colonial administrator in Godthaab
Nuuk
Nuuk, is the capital of Greenland, the northernmost capital in North America and the largest city in Greenland. Located in the Nuup Kangerlua fjord, the city lies on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea and on the west coast of Sermersooq. Nuuk is the largest cultural and economic center in...

 and Julianehåb
Qaqortoq
Qaqortoq is a town in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. With a population of 3,230 as of 2011, it is the most populous town in southern Greenland, and the fourth-largest town in the country. The name is western Greenlandic and means "[the] white [one]".- History :The area around...

. He studied the Arctic Ocean
Arctic Ocean
The Arctic Ocean, located in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Arctic north polar region, is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions...

 ice, its origins, movement and composition and in 1853, he published his essay, On the spread and movement of ice over the North Greenland mainland. From 1857–1868, he was a royal inspector of South Greenland. During his years as a civil servant, he published his main work, Greenland and statistically described geography, which is the first standard work on Greenland after Hans Egede
Hans Egede
Hans Poulsen Egede was a Norwegian-Danish Lutheran missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Dano-Norwegian interest in the island after contact...

's "Perlustration" of 1729.

In 1855, Rink found the late 18th century printing press of missionary Jesper Brodersen and began printing small items, the first of which was a handbill dated 21 October 1855. Two years later, Rink acquired a small, Danish printing press and a lithographic press. Rink established a print shop in Godthaab in 1861, the South Greenland Press, and founded the first Greenlandic language newspaper, Atuagagdliutit
Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten
Atuagagdliutit/Grønlandsposten, usually referred to as AG, is one of two newspapers in Greenland which are distributed nationwide. The newspaper is published twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays....

(translation: "Readings"). Its first issue was published in January 1861, and it was published monthly thereafter. In addition to the newspaper, the print shop published pamphlets.

Rink actively cared for the welfare of the Inuit, with whom he had close contact. It was his idea and under his guidance, that the Commission's board members were introduced, which ensured Greenlanders' influence on their own affairs. In 1858, he called on local people to learn their artistic traditions. He helped discover and promote the artists Jens Kreutzmann and Aron of Kangeq. Rink studied the Greenlandic language and folklore; Eskimo tales and legends was published in 1866.

In 1868, forced to leave Greenland for health reasons, Rink again returned to Copenhagen. From 1871 until 1882, he served as Director of the Royal Greenland Board of Trade. In that capacity, he headed the Greenlandic trade administration. In Copenhagen, he founded the Grønlænderhjem for young Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

 to learn a craft so they could more easily obtain employment.

Rink was a Corresponding Member of the Royal Geographic Society. He received the Silver Medal from the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters is a Danish non-governmental science Academy, founded 13 November 1742 by permission of the King Christian VI, as a historical Collegium Antiquitatum...

 in 1852.

Personal life

Rink, tall and thin, was almost emaciated in frame. In 1853, he married Sophie Nathalia Nielsine Caroline Miller (born 1836, Godthaab
Nuuk
Nuuk, is the capital of Greenland, the northernmost capital in North America and the largest city in Greenland. Located in the Nuup Kangerlua fjord, the city lies on the eastern shore of the Labrador Sea and on the west coast of Sermersooq. Nuuk is the largest cultural and economic center in...

), nicknamed Signe. Signe was born and raised in Greenland. She was the daughter of Paamiut
Paamiut
Paamiut is a town in the Sermersooq municipality in southwestern Greenland. The name of the town means "they who reside by the mouth" in Greenlandic.- Geography :...

 colonial administrators Jørgen Nielsen Møller and Antonette Ernestine Constance Tommerup. Signe published short stories about the lives and problems of Greenlanders. She is considered to be the first woman who wrote about Greenlandic culture. She was also instrumental in preserving the works, woodcuts and watercolors of Jens Kreutzmann and Aron of Kangeq.

Little is written about Rink's children; there may have been three.
As their only daughter, Antoinette Margrethe Rink (b. 1855) moved to Christiania
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

, Rink and his wife retired there in 1882, and he finished his last work. Rink died in 1893 as the leading expert of his day on Greenland. A memorial built of stone in Godthaab contains a plaque with the inscription kalatdlit asavai ilisimavai (translation: "He loved the Greenlanders, knew and defended them").

Legacy

The Hinrich Rink collection of over 140 manuscript maps also includes cards upon which he and others had drawn. It is now in the Royal Danish Library.

Rink Glacier in northwest Greenland is named in his honor.

Partial works


External links

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