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This series includes accounts, by eye-witnesses and contemporaries, of early expeditions to the Arctic and the Antarctic. Huge resources were invested in such endeavours, particularly the search for the North-West Passage, which, if successful, promised enormous strategic and commercial rewards. Cartographers and scientists travelled with many of the expeditions, and their work made important contributions to earth sciences, climatology, botany and zoology. They also brought back anthropological information about the indigenous peoples of the Arctic region and the southern fringes of the American continent. The series further includes dramatic and poignant accounts of the harsh realities of working in extreme conditions and utter isolation in bygone centuries.

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202 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Polar Exploration

Page 1 of 11

Manual of the Natural History, Geology, and Physics of Greenland and the Neighbouring Regions
  • Prepared for the Use of the Arctic Expedition of 1875, under the Direction of the Arctic Committee of the Royal Society
  • Edited by T. Rupert Jones
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1875
  • This 1875 manual presents a detailed scientific picture of Greenland and its Arctic environment. Edited by the geologist Thomas Rupert Jones (1819–1911), it was prepared for the British Arctic Expedition of the same year in order to inform and instruct the explorers. The work presents previously ascertained information, ranging from astronomical data, including observations of the northern lights, through to material on plant and animal life. Sir George Nares (1831–1915), the expedition's leader, had hoped the North Pole could be reached. Though this proved impossible, a team of his men set a record for the furthest northern latitude attained at the time. Underpinning the expedition's gathering of important scientific and geographical results, this manual clarifies for modern readers the specific objectives of late Victorian polar research. Nares' official 1876 report and his 1878 two-volume account of the journey are also reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.

Appendix to the Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North-West Passage
  • And of a Residence in the Arctic Regions during the Years 1829–33
  • Volume 2
  • John Ross
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    17 May 2012
    First published in:
    1835
  • Polar explorer John Ross (1777–1856) sailed with William Edward Parry in 1818 to seek a North-West Passage from Baffin Bay. The attempt was unsuccessful, and Ross was widely blamed for its failure. In 1829, he set out on a privately funded expedition on the steamship Victory, accompanied by his nephew James Clark Ross, to try again, returning to England in late 1833. Using survival techniques learnt from the Inuit he befriended, Ross kept his crew healthy through four icebound winters. While the voyage once again failed to find a North-West Passage, it surveyed the Boothia Peninsula and a large part of King William Land. It was also valuable for its scientific findings, with J. C. Ross discovering the magnetic pole. Ross published this two-volume work in 1835. Volume 2 contains scientific reports, ethnological information on the Inuit, an Eskimo vocabulary and comments on natural history.

Als Eskimo unter den Eskimos
  • Eine Schilderung der Erlebnisse der Schwatka'schen Franklin-Aufsuchungs-Expedition in den Jahren 1878–80
  • Heinrich W. Klutschak
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    14 June 2012
    First published in:
    1881
  • With this 1881 publication, Heinrich Klutschak (1847–90), a German native of Prague, produced one of the first comprehensive accounts of Inuit life. In the years 1878–80 the artist and writer was part of an expedition, led by the American soldier Frederick Schwatka, which travelled in the Canadian Arctic. This undertaking was but one of many that sought to discover what had happened during the last expedition of the British explorer Sir John Franklin in the 1840s. As the title of the work indicates, Klutschak and his fellow expedition members attempted to live as fully as possible in the manner of the Inuit and in close proximity to them. Although Klutschak dwells on the antipathy between some of the Inuit bands, the general tone of the book is one of respect for their survival skills and way of life.

Nord-fahrt, entlang der Norwegischen küste, nach dem Nordkap, den Inseln Jan Mayen und Island, auf dem Schooner Joachim Hinrich
  • Unternommen während der monate Mai bis Oktober 1861 von Dr Georg Berna, in begleitung von C. Vogt, H. Hasselhorst, A. Gressly und A. Herzen
  • Karl Christoph Vogt
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1863
  • In the summer of 1861 the German-born geologist, zoologist and politician Carl Vogt (1817–95), Professor at Geneva, accompanied the wealthy landowner Georg Berna on a privately financed voyage to the Norwegian coast, the North Cape and Iceland. His role was to explain the natural history of the places they visited; also in the party was the artist Heinrich Hasselhorst, whose drawings illustrate this account of their journey. Vogt's book, published in 1863, is a travel narrative rather than a scientific report. It describes life on board the Joachim Hinrich, and his impressions of places including Bergen, Tromsø and Reykjavik, which he compares to a 'white desert' without trees or bushes. Vogt praises the hospitality, athletic physique and good looks of the Icelandic people, but expresses surprise that the natural resources of the island remain largely unexploited. The book includes appendices on Norwegian geology and Icelandic volcanoes.

The Arctic North-East and West Passage
  • Detectio Freti Hudsoni, or Hessel Gerritsz' Collection of Tracts by Himself, Massa and De Quir on the N.E. and W. Passage, Siberia and Australia
  • Hessel Gerritsz
  • Translated by Fred John Millard
  • Introduction by S. Muller
  • Published online:
    05 September 2015
    Print publication:
    19 March 2015
  • This short work contains texts and maps relating to early exploration and trade routes. Included here are descriptions of Russia and Siberia by Isaac Massa (1586–1643), a Dutch merchant and diplomat; one of the memorials relating to Pacific discoveries by the Portuguese explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós (c.1565–1615); and maps by the cartographer Hessel Gerritsz (c.1581–1632) showing the discoveries of the English navigator Henry Hudson (d.1611). Gerritsz originally compiled these materials and published them in Dutch, and they were soon translated into Latin to increase their readership. In the present work, first published in 1878, reproductions of the Dutch and Latin editions from 1612 and 1613 are presented together by Frederik Muller (1817–81). To encourage research on these texts, Muller also included a new English translation, and an explanatory essay by his son Samuel Muller (1848–1922).

The Polar Regions
  • John Richardson
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1861
  • The Arctic explorer Sir John Richardson (1787–1865), who had accompanied both John Franklin and John Rae on major expeditions, expands here an article which had appeared in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Organised in two parts, and published in 1861, this work covers first the Arctic and then the largely unexplored Antarctic. Adopting a chronological approach in the first part, Richardson covers Roman knowledge of the far north, Norse voyages, and later exploration by the British, Dutch and Russians. He then deals in detail with the search for the North-West Passage, including the expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin. Later chapters cover Spitsbergen, Arctic weather, ice, currents, geology, vegetation and zoology, as well as the three principal groups of native people: the Inuit, Lapps and Samoyeds. In the second part, Richardson outlines Antarctic exploration since 1576, providing an overview of what little was known of this part of the globe.

The Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Herald, under the Command of Captain Henry Kellet, R.N., C.B., during the Years 1845–51
  • Fossil Mammals
  • John Richardson
  • Edited by Edward Forbes
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    28 August 2014
    First published in:
    1852
  • Naval surgeon, Arctic explorer and natural historian, Sir John Richardson (1787–1865) published many works, several of which are reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection, notably the four-volume Fauna Boreali-Americana. At the Haslar Royal Naval Hospital, where he worked towards the end of his career, Richardson built up a library and museum that became renowned for natural history research. His published work was fuelled by his own voyages and the specimens sent back from other expeditions, as was the case for this illustrated work, completed in 1854. Richardson describes the zoological specimens collected during the 1845–51 voyage of the survey ship H.M.S. Herald, which had sailed into Arctic seas and took part in the search for Sir John Franklin. The collected fauna include fossil mammals from the ice cliffs at Eschscholtz Bay in Alaska, first discovered in 1816 by Otto von Kotzebue and his naturalists.

In the Lena Delta
  • A Narrative of the Search for Lieut-Commander De Long and his Companions, Followed by an Account of the Greely Relief Expedition and a Proposed Method of Reaching the North Pole
  • George W. Melville
  • Edited by Melville Philips
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    15 December 2011
    First published in:
    1885
  • George W. Melville (1841–1912) was a member of an 1879 American Arctic expedition seeking a northern passage from the Bering Strait to the Atlantic. Its ship was trapped in ice for nearly two years, and was eventually crushed and sank. The crew, stranded in three small boats, were left with few provisions and little hope of rescue. Melville was the only boat commander to bring his men to safety, assuming leadership of the survivors after landing in Siberia in 1881. He returned to search for other survivors, trekking over a thousand miles, but found only the bodies of his former companions in a frozen campsite, from which, however, he recovered the expedition's records. This account also includes details of Melville's role in the Greely Relief Expedition of 1884, from which he returned shortly before the book's British publication in 1885, and a detailed proposal for reaching the North Pole.

Through the First Antarctic Night, 1898–1899
  • A Narrative of the Voyage of the Belgica among Newly Discovered Lands and over an Unknown Sea about the South Pole
  • Frederick A. Cook
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
    First published in:
    1900
  • In this illustrated 1900 publication, Frederick Cook (1865–1940) gives a detailed account of his experiences on the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, the first to endure the harsh winter of the Antarctic. The goal of the expedition was scientific discovery, and Cook, the ship's doctor, tells an engaging story of 'new human experience in a new, inhuman world of ice'. Boarding the Belgica in Rio de Janeiro, he joined a crew that included Roald Amundsen, who would later lead a Norwegian expedition to the South Pole. Cook describes the challenging conditions in the Antarctic Circle, where the ship became ice-bound for almost a year, with over two months of total darkness. When crew members developed scurvy, Cook took over command from the Belgian naval officer Adrien de Gerlache. Notably, he helped save lives by promoting the consumption of penguin and seal meat at a time when Vitamin C had yet to be discovered.

The Voyage of the 'Why Not?' in the Antarctic
  • The Journal of the Second French South Polar Expedition, 1908–1910
  • Jean Charcot
  • Translated by Philip Walsh
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
    First published in:
    1911
  • This 1911 publication, translated from the French, vividly describes the varied hardships and satisfactions of Antarctic exploration and scientific research in the early twentieth century. Son of the famed neurologist, Jean-Baptiste Charcot (1867–1936) commanded the Pourquoi-Pas? on its hazardous journey into the ice-bound regions south of Cape Horn. Illustrated with numerous photographs, his journal entries provide a rich account of daily life aboard the ship and out on the ice, including encounters with seals and penguins, and Christmases gathered around a cardboard tree. Building on the advances made by previous expeditions, including his own on the Français (1903–5), Charcot and his men, ranging in their expertise from astronomy to zoology, set out to further push back the boundaries of the unknown 'for the honour of French science'. The precise mapping of more than a thousand miles of Antarctic coastline ranked as one of the expedition's foremost achievements.

The Lands of Silence
  • A History of Arctic and Antarctic Exploration
  • Clements R. Markham
  • Edited by F. H. H. Guillemard
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
    First published in:
    1921
  • Sir Clements R. Markham (1830–1916) had succumbed to smoke after accidentally igniting his bedclothes while reading by candlelight; the task of completing this history therefore fell to his friend and fellow geographer F. H. H. Guillemard (1852–1933), who published it in 1921. In the course of his long career, Markham had sailed to the Arctic in search of Sir John Franklin, jeopardised his job in the India Office by joining the British attempt to reach the North Pole in 1875–6, and served as president of the Royal Geographical Society, sending Robert Falcon Scott on his first expedition to Antarctica. His extensive knowledge of the prominent polar explorers and expeditions of his day lends this publication an especial interest and authority. Enhanced by a number of maps and illustrations, the book also considers certain scientific and economic developments, notably the growth of the whaling industry.

A Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the North-West Passage
  • While in Search of the Expedition under Sir John Franklin
  • Alexander Armstrong
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    14 July 2011
    First published in:
    1857
  • The H.M.S. Investigator spent the years 1850–4 in the Western Arctic engaged in a search for the lost expedition of the explorer Sir John Franklin. In this 1857 publication Alexander Armstrong (1818–99), surgeon and naturalist to the ship, gives a first-hand account of life on board during the voyage, as testimony to the 'heroism, devotion, and endurance' of his shipmates. He describes the harsh conditions that the crew had to endure, and argues convincingly that no travel 'more thoroughly tests man's powers of endurance, both morally and physically' than travelling in the Arctic. He also notes that lemon juice proved the most effective remedy against scurvy. Armstrong's natural history research was cut short when the ship was abandoned and his collections left behind, but he includes an appendix listing the animals and birds observed on the voyage, and the Arctic plants collected by a friend and colleague.

The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin
  • A Personal Narrative
  • Elisha Kent Kane
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    01 January 2015
  • Dr Elisha Kane (1820–57), the most famous of American Arctic explorers before Peary, published this work in 1853. Having graduated from medical school, Kane joined the US Navy in 1843, and in 1850 was appointed senior medical officer on the expedition financed by the philanthropist Henry Grinnell to search for Sir John Franklin. Kane had departed on a second expedition while this book was in press, and he continued his Arctic travels, to the detriment of his health, until the year before his early death. In this work, Kane describes the origins of the expedition in the worldwide appeal by Lady Franklin, and, using his own journals, gives a vivid account of a winter spent icebound in the Arctic. Among the appendices is the official report of the expedition's commander, Lieutenant De Haven. Though Franklin's first winter camp was found, there were no further traces of his crew.

Life of Admiral Sir Leopold McClintock, K.C.B., D.C.L., L.L.D., F.R.S., V.P.R.G.S.
  • Clements R. Markham
  • Introduction by William Alexander
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
    First published in:
    1909
  • This biography of polar explorer Sir Leopold McClintock (his name is also spelled M'Clintock) was published in 1909 by his 'old messmate' Sir Clements Markham (1830–1916), later more famous as a historian. (Several works by both men have been reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection.) McClintock (1819–1907) gained experience of Arctic voyages on the expeditions of James Clark Ross and Edward Belcher, during which he undertook several arduous sledge journeys over the ice. In 1854, he took leave from the navy to command the Fox, a ship paid for by Lady Franklin to investigate the fate of her husband's expedition. He found the memorandum, written by his second-in-command, which confirmed Franklin's death in June 1847. McClintock was knighted for his services on his return, and he stayed in the navy, serving on different stations around the world, until his retirement with the rank of admiral in 1884.

Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River, and along the Shores of the Arctic Ocean
  • In the Years 1833, 1834, and 1835
  • George Back
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • John Ross had disappeared while exploring the Northwest Passage in 1829. A lieutenant in the Royal Navy, George Back (1796–1878) had already served with John Franklin on two Arctic expeditions in 1819–22 and 1824–26. He volunteered to lead an expedition to find Ross, setting out in 1833. When Ross returned safely in 1834, Back continued his explorations down the unknown Great Fish River and mapped the Arctic coast westwards, travelling some 7,500 miles in total. Valuable observations on weather, geology, entomology, magnetics and aurora are included as appendices in this 1836 publication. Engravings of Back's own illustrations further enhance the narrative. Although described by some as an opportunist and a weak leader, Back was greeted as a hero on his return and awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. The success of this expedition enabled him to head back to the Arctic in 1836.

Report of Board of Officers to Consider an Expedition for the Relief of Lieut. Greely and Party
  • United States Board of Officers
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
    First published in:
    1884
  • In 1881, Adolphus Greely led a US Arctic expedition to gather meteorological, astronomical and magnetic data. It was poorly supported by the US Army, neither Greely nor his men had experience of Arctic conditions, and their ship, the Proteus, sailed home once they had landed in Greenland. An inadequately planned relief mission failed to reach them in 1882, and a second expedition in 1883, including the Proteus (which was crushed by ice), also failed to locate the men or to land sufficient supplies. This official report was published in 1884, and proposes a further rescue mission, much more carefully planned and equipped. It includes, as an appendix, detailed information about Arctic conditions and means of survival from the British naval explorers George Nares and Albert H. Markham. When eventually found, only seven of Greely's original team of twenty-five were still alive. Other accounts of the expeditions are also reissued in this series.

The Discovery of the North-West Passage by HMS Investigator, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854
  • From the Logs and Journals of Capt. Robert Le M. M'Clure, Illustrated by S. Gurney Cresswell
  • Robert John Le Mesurier McClure
  • Edited by Sherard Osborn
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    06 May 2013
    First published in:
    1856
  • By the middle of the nineteenth century, the North-West Passage, a trade route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, had been sought for centuries without success. The Franklin expedition of 1845 became the latest victim, and Irish naval officer Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure (1807–73) took part in the attempts to ascertain its fate. His ship, H.M.S. Investigator, spent the years 1850–4 in the Arctic, and in the course of their search for the lost expedition, the crew discovered the North-West Passage. Upon his return to England, following the loss of the Investigator to pack ice, McClure handed over his journals to author and fellow officer Sherard Osborn (1822–75), who prepared this narrative of the pioneering expedition. First published in 1856, the work remains a compelling account of Arctic exploration, revealing how McClure and his men survived four forbidding winters.

The German Arctic Expedition of 1869–70
  • And Narrative of the Wreck of the Hansa in the Ice
  • Karl Koldewey
  • Edited and translated by Lewis Mercier
  • Edited by Henry Walter Bates
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
  • This heavily illustrated book is an account of a German Arctic expedition, published in 1873–4 by its commander Karl Koldewey (1837–1908) and in this English translation in 1874. The states of northern Germany had a long tradition of trade and exploration in northern waters. As the German empire came into being, two major expeditions were launched, both commanded by Koldewey. The second, of 1869–70, consisted of two vessels, the Germania and the Hansa, a supply ship. The Hansa became separated in fog, failed to reach the fallback rendezvous, was icebound, and finally sank, while the crew survived for nine months on a diminishing ice floe until they reached the coast of Greenland in their surviving small boats. The Germania reached the north of Greenland before encountering pack ice, and was successful in surveying the coast and collecting botanical specimens, before returning safely in 1870.

The Voyages and Travels of Captains Parry, Franklin, Ross, and Mr Belzoni
  • Forming an Interesting History of the Manners, Customs, and Characters of Various Nations
  • John Frederick Dennett
  • Published online:
    05 January 2015
    Print publication:
    06 November 2014
    First published in:
    1826
  • Little is known about the life of Captain John Frederick Dennett, who published this compilation of travel narratives in 1826, with a second edition in 1835. A naval officer, he was clearly familiar with recent developments in polar exploration, but his writing also had an educational and moral purpose. 'It must be attended with advantage to become acquainted with the state of mankind in other parts of the world', but also it will be encouraging to the poor in Britain 'to find that the lowest state of comfort in this country is preferable to all the enjoyments within the reach of natives of other climes'. Emphasising encounters with native peoples rather than geographical or scientific discoveries, Dennett describes expeditions by Parry, Franklin and Sir John Ross in the Arctic seas and the Canadian north, and also includes a chapter on Giovanni Battista Belzoni's travels in Egypt and Nubia.

The Frozen Zone and its Explorers
  • A Comprehensive Record of Voyages, Travels, Discoveries, Adventures and Whale-Fishing in the Arctic Regions for One Thousand Years
  • Edited by Alexander Hyde, A. C. Baldwin, W. L. Gage
  • Published online:
    05 January 2015
    Print publication:
    17 July 2014
    First published in:
    1874
  • This account by three American authors of one thousand years of exploration in the Arctic regions, culminating in the voyage and loss of the USS Polaris in 1872, was published in 1874. The work, which is derived from many earlier published accounts, begins with a short and highly sentimental biography of the famous American explorer Elisha Kane (whose own works are reissued in this series). It continues with the geography of the Arctic regions, and the voyages of the Vikings and early modern explorers, describing the activities of the whaling fleets as well as the oceanographic and scientific researches of the naval expeditions from many countries seeking the North-West Passage. This is a useful and readable synthesis, which ends with a stirring appeal to the British Admiralty to resume the work of polar exploration which had gone into decline after the end of the official search for Sir John Franklin.

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