POSTED BY FRAN HENNESSEY Whether to proceed in the face of adversity has confronted explorers since antiquity and was a real concern for 19th century Arctic explorers. The inability for explorers to predict adverse weather and/or ice conditions can lead to injurious and/or fatal outcomes. By their nature, these Arctic explorers pressed on where others would… Continue reading Pressing On or Turning Back, The Franklin Expedition (Part 1 of 2)
Category: Arctic Visions
Curator’s photographs from Greenland Voyage
POSTED BY MICHAEL LAPIDES These photographs were taken by Arctic Visions: Away then Floats the Ice-Island curator Michael Lapides as part of the “Chasing the Light” voyage. The purpose of this voyage was to partially retrace Bradford’s 1869 voyage aboard the Panther.
Wet Plate Collodion Photography
POSTED BY MICHAEL LAPIDES Wet plate collodion photography is a featured element of the Arctic Visions exhibit. Specifically the work accomplished by photographers John L. Dunmore and George Critcherson while aboard the Panther in 1869. This is Quinn Jacobson’s short video about how to prepare and expose wet plate collodion negatives.
Dr. Elisha Kent Kane
POSTED BY RUSSELL POTTER Looming large behind all of the polar spectacles of Bradford and Dunmore and Critcherson, as well as the career of Dr. Isaac I. Hayes, there stands the figure of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, by far the most famous Arctic explorer of his day. He was the ship’s surgeon on the First… Continue reading Dr. Elisha Kent Kane
Location of the resting place of Isaac Israel Hayes, M.D.
POSTED BY DR. P.J. CAPELOTTI, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Penn State Abington. Since 2006, three different seminar courses in American studies and Anthropology at Penn State University Abington College have sought to locate the birth and burial spots of four Arctic explorers all born in Pennsylvania. Some of these, such as the birthplace of Robert… Continue reading Location of the resting place of Isaac Israel Hayes, M.D.
The Open Polar Sea
POSTED BY RUSSELL A. POTTER One of the most persistent chimeras of nineteenth-century polar exploration, the belief in an “Open Polar Sea” was so widely-held that it was often taken as an article of faith. There is some evidence that the idea went back as far the the 16th century, but its modern history begins… Continue reading The Open Polar Sea
William Bradford, a “photographic artist”
POSTED BY MICHAEL LAPIDES Google’s Ngram Viewer allows one to mine deep-level data. Digitization has benefits. William Bradford has been referred to as, and in fact was, a “photographic artist”. Ngram viewer provides a decade by decade look at how this term was used. http://goo.gl/DhWKO A possible first public reference to him as a “photographic artist”… Continue reading William Bradford, a “photographic artist”
Persons Represented
POSTED BY MICHAEL LAPIDES The idea for a new Arctic Visions blog category named Persons Represented is suggested through Isaac Israel Hayes’ Land of Desolation – Being a Personal Narrative of Observation and Adventure in Greenland. Published in 1872 Hayes’ book is, like Bradford’s Arctic Regions, a narrative of their 1869 voyage aboard the Panther. In the exhibit the two books… Continue reading Persons Represented
Bradford, Hayes, and Wasson
POSTED BY RUSSELL POTTER A recent discovery by Ethelind Wright at the University of Southern Maine has revealed that William Bradford’s ambition to make use of the lantern-slide versions of the Arctic views made under his supervision by Dunmore and Critcherson dates back much earlier than any of us working on the exhibit had realized.… Continue reading Bradford, Hayes, and Wasson
Signatures in the Bradford Scrapbooks
POSTED BY RUSSELL POTTER Russell A. Potter has been fascinated with the Arctic regions for many years, and has written and lectured extensively on many different aspects of its history. His book Arctic Spectacles: The Frozen North in Visual Culture, 1818-1875, is required reading for anyone interested in our Arctic Visions exhibit. In addition to contributing… Continue reading Signatures in the Bradford Scrapbooks
