To mark the 250th anniversary of the first recorded crossing of Antarctica, a new book will be published that traces the continent’s history through 100 artifacts from around the world.
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December 28, 2022
Herbert Ponting/Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images
The first recorded Antarctic crossing was made by James Cook on January 17, 1773 with the HMS resolution. Now, 250 years later, Jean de Pommel and Daniella McCahy Antarctica: History of 100 Objectsis a book that tells the story of the continent through 100 photographs and artefacts from around the world.
The main image is the iconic 1911 photograph taken by Herbert Ponting from an iceberg cave (below). Ponting was the first professional photographer to travel to Antarctica after being invited to join Robert Falcon Scott’s ill-fated expedition. The ship is Terra Nova, and the men are geologist Thomas Griffith Taylor and meteorologist Charles Wright.
Herbert Ponting in Antarctica in 1910 Herbert Ponting/Royal Geographical Society via Getty Images
Sean O’Boyle
Pictured above are the Antarctic Telescope and the BICEP (Space Galactic Extrapolarized Background Image) experiment at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. This telescope helped capture the first image of a supermassive black hole in 2019.
L: Vestfold Museums: R: U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command
Roald Amundsen’s 1910-12 Antarctic expedition leather goggles to prevent snow blindness are shown at upper left. Pictured to the right of them are mittens knitted by Edith “Jackie” Ronne during the expedition of 1946-48, when Ronne first overwintered in Antarctica as part of a geographic expedition, one of his two was one of his women.
GH Mumm & Cie
The image above shows Ernest Gourdon and Paul Preneau sharing a bottle of champagne in July 1904. This was intended to promote Mumm’s cordon his rouge, as the Mumm family had sponsored the trip.
Lion’s Pole/University of North Dakota
A spacesuit tested in Antarctica in 2011 for possible use on Mars. (pictured above).
Sebastian Copeland
A humpback whale skeleton (pictured above) restored by conservationist and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau on King George Island in 1972-73 to raise awareness of whaling.
Frédéric Perrin/Weather France
Anemometer used on the 1908-10 expedition.
Pictured above is a New Zealand $5 bill commemorating Edmund Hillary, the first team to reach the South Pole using a land vehicle in 1958.
Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
China’s 1602 Kunyu Wanguo Quantu map (pictured above) states, “Few people have reached these southern regions. So things have not yet been explored.”
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Coryphaenoides lecointei, fish specimen taken from Antarctica on March 15, 1899 (pictured above).
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