The group was visited and surveyed on January 2, 1959, by William H. Chapman, cartographer with the Horlick Mountains Traverse Party (1958–59).
The mountains were named by Chapman for George D. Whitmore, Chief Topographic Engineer of the United States Geological Survey (USGS), who was a member of the Working Group on Cartography of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research.
William H. Chapman, party surveyor, proposed the naming for M. Kerwin Linck, Chief of the Branch of Special Maps of the USGS.
It was surveyed on January 2, 1959, by William H. Chapman of USGS, a member of the Horlick Mountains Traverse Party, 1958–59.
He named the mountain after Walter R. Seelig, Office of Polar Programs, National Science Foundation, 1960–86, who developed the USGS-NSF plan for topographic mapping of Antarctica; NSF Representative in Christchurch, N.Z., during eleven United States Antarctic Research Program (USARP) austral seasons between 1971 and 1986, including seventeen trips to Antarctica and adjacent seas; member, United States Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names, 1973–86; chairman, 1976–86.