Maurice Cole Tanquary (November 26, 1881 - October 25, 1944) was a professor of entomology, a member of the Crocker Land Expedition and is considered to be a pioneer in modern beekeeping.

He furthered his education at Vincennes University, where he played an active role in the Tau Phi Delta society, contributing to its initial constitution and by-laws.

[4] Notably, Tanquary played an active role in campus life, founding the Ionian Literary Society and becoming a charter member of the Acacia fraternity.

[6][7] As the zoologist for the expedition, Tanquary was not involved in the final push to find the island from the village of Etah in northern Greenland.

Instead, he and fellow Illinois alumnus Walter Elmer Ekblaw were stationed at a Danish trading post 120 miles to the south.

In December 1914 Tanquary and Donald Baxter MacMillan set off by dogsled for southern Greenland in an attempt to send out word that Crocker Land did not exist and that they would need a rescue ship in 1915.

[5] Journals from Tanquary, Walter Ekblaw, Donald and Mirriam MacMillan are available online at the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives website.

Digitization of materials at Bowdoin College related to the Crocker Land Expedition funded by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation in 2016.

[6] Tanquary's family donated his photographs, lantern slides and journals to The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, Bowdoin College, in 2006.