Ziegler William
(01.09.1843–25.05.1905)

American millionaire, one of the founders of the Royal Chemical Company, which produced gunpowder. 
Born in Beaver County. 
In 1901, a Norwegian-American expedition led by E. Baldwin was organized on his money on the ships America and Fridt. Its goal was to reach the North Pole with the archipelago Franz Josef Land. The expedition was superbly, generously equipped and, it would seem, had every chance of success.However, she suffered a fiasco, almost not starting to perform its tasks. Participants were divided on a national basis into two warring camps. In such an environment, starting a movement towards the pole was pointless. 
In 1903, Ziegler organized a new, equally rich expedition led by the American A. Fiala, a former cavalryman, a photographer for the Baldwin expedition. Its goal was also to reach the North Pole. The base was organized in the Teplits Bay on Rudolf Island, although its unsuitability for this was known from the experience of the Duke of Abruzzi’s expedition. Opened to the north, it is completely unprotected from ice. And this expedition, financed by Ziegler, did not achieve its main goal, managing to reach only 82°N in a sled campaign.

She lost her ship "America", gone with ice, and by the winter of 1904-1905. It turned out to be divided into three groups that wintered in different parts of the archipelago: on Rudolph Island, Northbrook Island (Cape Flora) and Alger Island. The expedition participants examined the central part of the archipelago between 52 and 59°E  sanny routes, put Ziegler, Champ, Greely and Hayes on the map and clarified the outlines of several previously discovered.

Ziegler Island Cape Washington (photo by N. M. Stolbov)

Island Champ. Cape Mountain (photo by N. M. Stolbov)

In the summer of 1905, all participants were transported to Norway by the ship Terra Nova. According to the results of the expedition, a report was compiled and published, which included data from observations of terrestrial magnetism, auroras, tidal currents, meteorological and astronomical measurements, and an archipelago map was compiled.

He died of a stroke in his summer home Big Island in Darien, Connecticut. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York. 
An island in the center of the archipelago Franz Josef Land. Opened and named in 1903–1905. by American researchers.

The island south of the island of Edge Svalbard archipelago.