In 1901, when Mount Adams was being mapped and its glaciers named by Harry Fielding Reid, Reid's companion and guide, Claude Ewing Rusk, wanted to name the glacier Reid Glacier in honor of Reid; however, Reid insisted that it should be named something else because he thought it improper to place his own name on the map that he was making and the Mazamas were trying to name a glacier on Mount Hood after him. This eventually persuaded Rusk and he conceded to name the glacier Adams Glacier.