An excellent book which skewers Hillary for his disingenuous claim that his trip to the South Pole, upstaging Vivian Fuchs, was a spur of the moment decision, while convincingly documenting that it was Hillary’s intent from the outset of his involvement with TAE.
Climbing the Pole: Edmund Hillary & the Trans-Antarctic Expedition 1955-1958.
Thomson, John. Norwich, UK: Erskine Press, 2010.
- 1955-58 TAE: Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs and Hillary).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Arctic Voyages of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, 1858-1879.
Leslie, Alexander. London: Macmillan, 1879.
- 1872-73 etc. Swedish Arctic Expeditions led by Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld.
- Arctic Reading: Europe including Scandinavia
Preview
This volume covers all of Nordenskiöld’s polar exploration including the Vega voyage, but is notable for its coverage of the hygiene issues encountered in 1872-73. It should be noted that Adolf Nordenskiöld was an important collector of maps and atlases, and that references to maps and charts occur throughout this volume.
Gender on Ice.
Bloom, Lisa. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1993.
- Arctic Reading: General
Preview
A study of gender bias in polar exploration and its depiction in the National Geographic.
Étoffe du pays: Lower St. Lawrence Sketches.
Simms, Florence Mary. Toronto: Musson, n.d.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
This alleged children’s book is undated but probably describes events and publication of the mid-1920s. A couple of jems are worth recording from this delightful book:
The Yankee Tar. An Authentic Narrative of the Voyages and Hardships of John Hoxse, and the cruises of the U.S. Frigate Constellation, …
Hoxse, John. Written by Himself. With an Extract from the Writings of Rev. John Flavel. Northampton: MA: John Metcalf, for the Author, 1840.
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
p. 7, introducing what must have been one of the first author publicity tours: Having got this work up in a handsome style, and at a great expense, I have concluded to make a tour through the principal towns in this and the adjoining states, and to call personally upon every individual who may wish to purchase one of the books, that all who do this, may rest assured there is no imposition; for it would be a hard task for aany person to counterfeit my
Weird and Tragic Shores: The Story of Charles Francis Hall, Explorer.
Loomis, Chauncey C. New York: Knopf, 1971.
- 1870-73 US North Pole Expedition of Charles Hall (aboard USS Polaris).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
An excellent account of the life of the most eccentric of Arctic explorers who essentially abandoned his family in Cincinnati to pursue his Arctic dreams. Unprepared and inexperienced in Arctic ways, he adopted to and adapted Eskimo ways of living and survival by living with them for long periods and learning from them their secrets of survival. Both his origins and demise are clouded in mystery.
[Review]. “Account of the Proceedings of H. M. S. Enterprise from Behring Strait to Cambridge Bay.” By Capt. R. Collinson.
Back, George. Journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London 25 (1855) p. 194-206.
- 1848-59 The Franklin Search.
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
The Enterprise and the Investigator set sail together in 1850 to establish the North Pacific arm of the Franklin Search, hoping to meet the by-then missing Franklin as he emerged from the Northwest Passage. It was not to be: the ships were separated after successfully navigating the straights of Magellan only to be met by high seas that separated them forever. This paper was communicated to the RGS by Sir George Back, from Captain Collinson of the Enterprise.
James Isham’s Observations on Hudsons Bay, 1743 and Notes and Observations on a Book Entitled
Isham, James. A Voyage to Hudsons Bay in the Dobbs Galley, 1749.Edited with an Introduction by E. E. Rich. (Toronto: Champlain Society, 1949.
- Hudson's Bay Company.
- Arctic Reading: Canada
Preview
James Isham was employed by the HBC from 1732 and as chief of Fort York from 1737, According to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Volume III) “Isham was at once a skilled and understanding trader, a perceptive planner and strategist, and a conscientious and observant natural historian.” He was not an expert on the fur trading business, but he did develop expertise in the subject of Indian vocabularies
On Floating Ice: Two Years on Antarctic Ice-Shelf South of 75°S.
MacDowall, Joseph. Edinburgh: Pentland Press, 1999.
- 1955-59 Royal Society IGY Antarctic Expedition.
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
For one year MacDowall was the leader of this expedition and base at Halley Bay in the Weddell Sea, one of Britain’s contributions to IGY. It is quite a prosaic account, with little drama, but notable for its citations to the base newspaper, the Halley Comet.
Ghosts of Cape Sabine. The Harrowing True Story of the Greely Expedition
Guttridge, Leonard F. New York, Putnam’s, 2000.
- 1881-84 International Physical Year US Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay (led by Adolphus Greely).
- Arctic Reading: United States
Preview
p. 41: He was just as meticulous about ordering ‘a hand atlas, well-bound with guards, so the maps while being of half size-when closed, will open smoothly and of full size.’ Harper and Brothers in New York would supply volumes on exploration, anthropology, medicine, and miscellaneous other subjects, besides a score of novels and some sixty magazines.
Voyages of Discovery in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, and Round the World: Being Personal Narratives of Attempts to Reach the North and South Poles; and of an Open-boat Expedition up the Wellington Channel in Search of Sir John Franklin and Her Majesty’s ships “Erebus” and “Terror,” in Her Majesty’s Boat “Forlorn Hope,” under the Command of the Author. To which are added an Autobiography….
McCormick, Robert. In Two Volumes. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1884.
- Arctic Reading: General
Preview
These volumes cover three separate expeditions with an autobiography, and can be found on the Hathi Trust. McCormick was the surgeon on Ross’s Erebus (1839-1843), also something of a zoologist who also was involved in the Franklin Search in the 1850s.
The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776-1780.
Cook, James, Captain. Edited by J. C. Beaglehole. Two volumes. (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1967).
- 1776-80 British Naval Expedition–Third Voyage (Captain James Cook aboard Discovery and Resolution).
- Global Circumnavigations and Cape Horn Transits.
- Maritime Reading
Preview
These volumes cover Cook’s attempt on his third voyage at finding the Northwest Passage from the west but ending in his death. Included in the volume are the surviving journals of officers of the expedition, including various descriptions of the death of Cook.
Journal of a Voyage in Baffin’s Bay and Barrow Straits, in the Years 1850-1851, Performed in H.M. Ships “Lady Franklin” and “Sophia,” under the Command of Mr. William Penny….
Sutherland, Peter C. Two volumes. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1852.
- 1848-51 British Expedition in Franklin Search (commanded by Capt. T.E.L. Moore aboard H.M.S. Plover).
- Arctic Reading: Great Britain
Preview
These volumes recount one of the early Franklin search expeditions, originally organized by Lady Franklin but adopted and furnished by the Admiralty, and which wintered near the Resolute and Assistance, and were also close to John Ross’s Felix and Mary expedition (HBC). Sutherland was surgeon on the Sophia, and appears from these volumes to have been a most panglossian optimist, as can be seen from some of the quotations below.
South Polar Times.
London: Smith, Elder, 1907-14. Dartmouth. STEF G850 1901 q. D7. 6 vols.
- 1907-09 British Antarctic Expedition (Shackleton on Nimrod).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
Vol. III. P. 37:
A Very Gallant Gentleman.
Bernacchi, Louis Charles. (London: Thornton Butterworth, 1935). [First published 1933].
- 1901-04 British National Antarctic Expedition (Scott aboard Discovery).
- Antarctic Reading: Expeditions
Preview
This is Bernacchi’s hagiographic biography of Capt. Lawrence Oates, who died with Scott on the 1912 South Pole expedition [“I may be some time”], recalled more than 20 years later. Bernacchi, who was aboard the first Scott expedition on Discovery, idealized Scott “a leader with no desire for publicity or cheap notoriety. A man of high ideals…, The new expedition was no mere dash to the Pole to snatch priority from rival explorers, though the hope of this laurel leaf in the crown of adventure was an added spur to natural ambition” (p. 50).