Arctic Gothic

Arctic Menu

On 15 May 1875 John Barrow attended a dinner at the Admiralty in honour of Capt. George Nares' upcoming Arctic Expedition. Also present among others: Sirs George Back & Leopold McClintock. There was some interesting Arctic cuisine written on the menu!

[Pic by me, John Barrow's private journals, Weston Library Oxford]

The perfect gift for your budding polar explorer: Game of to the North Pole by Air Ship, new for 1897!

The game is possibly inspired by Swedish explorer Salomon Andrée's 1897 attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon (which did not go well). Presumably it was made before Andrée's grim fate was known.

Is this Greenland (because it's green), or Svalbard? Either way, the objective appears to be nestled in a verdant mountain valley. Just like the real North Pole!

Planet E A R T H  by :

© b.simon

The men (and dogs) of the First Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914. Images from the State Library of New South Wales; photographs by the inimitable Frank Hurley (and a few by other expedition members). 

Bonus: expedition leader Douglas Mawson balancing on the rail of the Aurora with a delightfully boyish grin.

Closing In By Marsel van Oosten

In 1869 the New Bedford artist and photographer William Bradford took part in an expedition to northern Greenland sponsored by a Boston family. The trip was documented in this book, with albumen photos that are considered the finest artic photos of the mid to late 19 th century. The book is scarce with copies selling in the 125-150000 range.

Arctic Circle Springtime Gothic

Someone looks at your snow pictures. “Must be cold there up North!” You look at the thermometre. Sub-zero frost. “Yeah.” You’re so hot as you stand in the blazing snow field that you feel like the Scottish twitter user, as if ye wrapped yersel up in tinfoil and crawled inty the microwave tae blow yerself up tae fuck.

There is a strange glowing orb in the sky, white and distant. It stays there for over three hours. It hurts your eyes. You no longer know its name, but it does make you see colours you had already forgotten. It follows you.

“Flower!” someone says. “Green leaves and grass!” You stare numbly at the snow. “Running water!” You hesitate to tell them that you haven’t seen even a hint of dry, barren earth in months.

Yesterday you wore three winter coats, leather mittens and a woolly hat. Yes. Today is t-shirt weather. Tomorrow you know you shall need thicker three coats.

The Thing (1982) dir. John Carpenter

via imbd

writing my first kinda real academic paper about antarctica and turns out I know things but don’t know how I know them. which is not very convenient for footnotes as you may imagine. source: bro trust me half of my brain is polar exploration