Newspaper clipping

New Zealand Press. SPRI MS 7354/1 BPC leaf 13.
  • 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Clipping from this newspaper in SPRI speaking of the “pretentious library” aboard Discovery, and noting that Shackleton had organized it. Probably from the period when Discovery was in Lyttleton, NZ November 1901. See above under Discovery.

Report on Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of 1883.

Garlington, Ernest A. Washington, DC: Signal Office, 1883. [Signal Service Notes No. X.].
  • 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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p. 25, among supplies provided for the expedition: 45. 150 blank books. 46. 12 blank daily journals. 47. 280 star charts for auroras. 48. 750 forms No. 102 for self register. 53. 4 boxes pens. 54. 2 reams legal cap. 55. 4 reams letter paper. 57. 2 reams foolscap. 58. 4 quarts Arnold’s ink. 60. 1 reading glass. 69. 1 ream computing paper. 70-82. multiple copies of forms and instructions. 100-12. Various titles: Treatise on Aneroid Barometers; Admirlty Manual of Scientific Inquiry; Arctic Manual,1875; Vega’s Logarithms; Nautical Almnac, 1883 (2 copies); Nautical Almanac, 1884 (2); Chauvenet’s Astronomy; Chauvenet’s Trigonometry; Loomis’ Meteorology (2); Guyot’s Tables (2); Everett’s Deschanel; Bowditch Useful Tables; Negur on Chronometers (2). 135. Webster’s dictionary.

A Voyage in the South Seas, in the Years 1812, 1813, and 1814. With Particular Details of the Gallipagos and Washington Islands.

Porter, David. London: Richard Phillips& Co., 1823.
  • 1812-1814 American Naval Cruise to the Pacific commanded by David Porter (aboard frigate Essex).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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A one-volume edition of the following year seems to cover the same voyage as the 1822, but it is hard to discover that through the Hathi indexing. It might be worth comparing them for any changes or omissions.

Tudor Political Consultancy.

Houston, Chloë. [Review of Thomas Elyot, The Image of Governance], TLS (July 26, 2019) p. 26-27:.
  • Arctic Reading: Great Britain
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In the opening lines of his preface to The Image of Governance (1541), Elyot tells his reader that he came across his subject while

Among the Magi

Sponholz, Martin. https://www.antarctican.org/memoirs-diaries?rq=sponholz.
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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This memoir by Society member Martin Sponholz recounts his experiences at Plateau Station and the Japanese Showa Station in the 1960's. It has never been published, but has appeared on other websites in the past. We thought it deserved a home with the Antarctican Society, with Marty's permission.

Mid-Ice: The Story of the Wegener Expedition to Greenland.

Georgi, Johannes. Translation by F. H. Lyon. [Preface by Einar Mikkelsen] London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1934.
  • 1930-31 German Expedition to Greenland (Alfred Wegener).
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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p. xii: It is a human document of importance, which will show coming generations till remote ages what German scientists will dare that they may follow their scientific vocation and do honour to their country.

Vitus Bering: The Discovery of the Bering Strait

Lauridsen, Peter. Revised by the Author, and Translated from the Danish by Julius E. Olson. With an Introduction to the American Edition by Frederick Schwatka. Chicago: S. C. Griggs, 1889.
  • Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
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A fascinating biography of the famous Danish-Russian explorer of the Far East of Siberia and the Northern Pacific. The frequent accounts of reading were not from books usedat sea as most of our examples are but are later readings, included here to give some insights into a significant early expedition.

The White Desert.

Barber, Noel. New York: Thomas W. Crowell, 1958.
  • 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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Barber was a British journalist under contract to write for the Daily Mail on the Fuchs/Hillary Trans-Antarctic Expedition. He spent the austral summer of 1957-58 in Antarctica, mainly at McMurdo but making two substantial visits to the South Pole and was there when Hillary and then Fuchs arrived in 1958. He takes a British anti-Hillary stance on the controversy over Hillary’s arrival at the SP and makes him into a quite unattractive figure. But he is not uncritical of Fuchs either, finding him stuffy, portentous, too proud to accept help offered by the Americans, but accepting it on a number of dire occasions. Nor does he note how Adm. Dufek is complicit in the feud of Fuchs and Hillary by encouraging Hillary to go to the Pole on his plane when it should have been none of Dufek’s business. He rather simply sees Dufek as an innocently generous American with little agenda of his own.

A Book of Book Lists.

Johnson, Alex. London: British Library, 2017.
  • Arctic Reading: General
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p. 63-66, Scott’s Discovery Library, 1901. A listing of the major polar titles from the Catalogue of the Discovery, from Scott’s first expedition, together with brief commentary, plus a list of books present on his cabin shelves aboard Endurance(1914-17).;

Shackleton’s Argonauts: A Saga of the Antarctic Icepacks.

Hurley, Frank. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1948.
  • 1914-16 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Endurance).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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p. 72-73: While on the subject of salvage [from the dying Endurance], I might add that I recovered the volumes of the encyclopaedia from the chief’s cabin and a large part of my own personal library, as well as several packs of cards. Many a day we had cause to bless the fact. What tedious hours were whiled away in reading; what wonderful and purely imaginary fortunes changed hands at poker patience.

Naval Stories.

Leggett, William. New-York: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1834. [Byron quote on title page:.
  • Maritime Reading
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I have loved thee, Ocean! and my joy

The Arctic Regions: Illustrated with Photographs Taken on an Art Expedition to Greenland.

Bradford, William. Michael Lapides, Editor. Boston, MA: David R. Godine, in association with the New Bedford Whaling Museum, 2013.
  • 1869 US Greenland Expedition of William Bradford (aboard Panther).
  • Arctic Reading: United States
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The narrative of Bradford’s 1869 original is all but unreadable in its original elephant folio format. This version offers a readable Bradford at last, with reduced text format and all the illustrations. The text is a fairly straightforward account of the Greenland voyage, with some good coverage of the natives encountered and especially of the Danish hospitality in several outports. Bradford proudly says at the outset that his ship, the Panther, was a temperance ship for all crew and passengers.

Fourteen Men: The Story of the Antarctic Expedition to Heard Island

Scholes, Arthur. New York: Dutton, 1952.
  • 1947-49 Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition (Heard Island and Macquarie Island).
  • Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
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An expedition of scientific research, chiefly meteorological and magnetic, but with an interest in Australian claims in Antarctica. Stokes was a radioman but also one of the “mets.” The Captain of the ship was Lt. Cmd. George Dixon; the leader of the shore party for Heard Island was Stuart Campbell. The ship was Ellsworth’s Wyatt Earp, where the officers and men were separated even for the alternate night movies. The trip to Heard Island (4000 kilometers southwest of Australia) was so full of weather-related dangers that references to reading do not occur until one third of the way into the book, and then not very many. Most winterover books have a central winter chapter (July/August) that discusses what the men did to pass the time. This lacks such a chapter, never talks about what the author himself read, and mainly recounts weather-related adventures during that period. Most of the last 150 pages deals with the fauna of Heard Island.