John B. (John Beach) Driggs

Born in the Caribbean in December 1852, John Beach Driggs later studied medicine at the University Medical College of the University of the City of New York and earned his M.D. in 1880. After practicing medicine in New York, he went in 1890 to the Episcopal mission station at Tikiġaq, now Point Hope, in northwestern Alaska.

Driggs worked there as both a physician and teacher, and he remained connected with Point Hope for at least two decades. During that time, he wrote down stories, traditions, and observations about the local Inupiat community, preserving material that might otherwise have been lost.

He is best known for Short Sketches of Oldest America (1905), a collection shaped by those years in Alaska. Readers interested in Arctic history, missionary life, and early accounts of Indigenous storytelling may find his work especially compelling.