The European Antarctic: Science and Strategy in Scandinavia and the British Empire

277 Pages·2011·3.02 MB·English

by  Peder Roberts (auth.)

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The European Antarctic: Science and Strategy in Scandinavia and the
British Empire
By Peder Roberts
Nature Engaged: Science in Practice from the Renaissance to the Present
By Jessica Riskin and Mario Biagioli, eds. (forthcoming)
The European Antarctic
Science and Strategy in Scandinavia
and the British Empire
Peder Roberts
THE EUROPEAN ANTARCTIC
Copyright © Peder Roberts, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
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the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29705-4 ISBN 978-0-230-33790-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-0-230-33790-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roberts, Peder.
The European Antarctic: science and strategy in Scandinavia and
the British Empire / Peder Roberts.
p. cm.—(Palgrave studies in cultural and intellectual history)
1. Scientific expeditions—Antarctica—History—20th century.
2. Antarctica—Discovery and exploration—British. 3. Antarctica—
Discovery and exploration—Norwegian. 4. Antarctica—Discovery
and exploration—Swedish. I. Title.
G870.R594 2011
919.8(cid:2)9—dc23 2011023660
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2011
Contents
List of Maps vii
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations and Acronyms xvii
Introduction 1
1 Science, Commerce, and the State 1 1
2 Imperial Science in the Antarctic 3 1
3 The Union of Hunting and Research 53
4 Ivory Towers and Icy Frontiers 77
5 The (Re)invention of a Swedish Tradition 97
6 A Successful Failure 117
7 The Cold War Comes to the Coldest Continent 141
Epilogue: A Continent for Performing Science 1 57
Notes 163
References and Works Consulted 229
Bibliography 235
Index 255
v
Maps
1. The Falkland Islands Dependencies. xiii
2. The North Atlantic region. xiv
3. The Antarctic region at the time of the 1959
Antarctic Treaty. Maps by Red Geographics,
made with Natural Earth. x v
vii
Acknowledgments
The roots of this book lie in my MA thesis in the School of History
and Philosophy of Science at the University of New South Wales.
There I was fortunate to meet Nick Rasmussen, who nurtured both
my project and my excitement about entering academia (a deci-
sion I have not had cause to regret). I am grateful to Nick and to
John Schuster, Head of School at the time, who went significantly
out of their way to procure a substantial discretionary grant from
the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences that enabled me to study
full time. The journey continued in the Department of History at
Stanford, where I was equally fortunate to cross paths with Robert
Proctor, who encouraged me to ask interesting questions and follow
quirky leads rather than to worry about being earnestly dull. Robert
cheerfully engaged with ideas far beyond his own (many) fields of
expertise, and I will always have fond memories of discussions over
tea—ranging from the genetic code of mastodons to imagery in
tobacco advertising, with every conceivable stop in between. I am
immensely grateful also to the many colleagues, friends, and teach-
ers who stimulated me to think in different directions, particularly
Lydia Barnett, Simon Ertz, Paula Findlen, Josh Howe, Peter Mann,
Bradley Naranch, Brianna Rego, Sarah Richardson, Priya Satia, Londa
Schiebinger, James J. Sheehan, and Derek Vanderpool. I owe a par-
ticular debt to Peter Stansky, whose infectious enthusiasm for both
the social and intellectual aspects of academic life I can only hope
to replicate.
The process of researching and writing this book was particu-
larly nomadic, even by the standards of the profession, and I have
accumulated an immense number of debts along the way. On the
financial side, I thank the National Science Foundation (Science and
Society Dissertation Improvement Grant #0723935), the Stanford
School of Humanities and Sciences, the generous anonymous
donor to British Studies at Stanford, and the Mellon Foundation—
through the Stanford Humanities Center. My initial research in
Stockholm was supported by a Visiting Research Scholarship from
the Center for the History of Science at the Royal Swedish Academy
of Sciences in Stockholm. Thanks to the kindness of the Center’s
director, Karl Grandin, I was provided with everything a traveling
ix
x Acknowledgments
scholar could desire—an office, housing, and access to wonderful
colleagues. I was fortunate enough to begin writing during an idyl-
lic summer in Stockholm by the Academy’s garden. The path from
dissertation to book began during a post-doctoral fellowship at the
Division of History of Science and Technology at the Royal Institute
of Technology in Stockholm, as part of the “Arctic Norden” project.
Sverker Sörlin, Thomas Kaiserfeld, Nina Wormbs, and Helena
Törnkvist brought me into their thriving community, generously
providing everything from travel funding and intellectual support
to assistance in navigating the Stockholm housing market. The final
writing took place at the University of Strasbourg during my employ-
ment by the European Research Council project “The Earth Under
Surveillance,” where principal investigator Simone Turchetti gener-
ously allowed me to prioritize the book manuscript. There I was for-
tunate also to have the officemate from heaven in Nestor Hérran,
without whose assistance the French bureaucracy might have proven
lethal. The book would never have happened without the unstint-
ing kindness of Sue Marchand, who encouraged me to submit the
proposal and then commented generously on the manuscript once
the process was under way. Sincere thanks also to Chris Chappell
and Sarah Whalen at Palgrave Macmillan, and to three anonymous
reviewers who commented upon the draft.
I have benefited from the generosity of many people along the
way. Börje and Kirsten Andersson, Daniel Halliday, David and Trish
Halliday, Cæcilie Hougaard Pedersen, Mary Jones, Noah Millstone,
Thomas Pedersen and Putte Hougaard Madsen, Kristin Primus, Johan
Schimanski and Ulrike Spring, Victoria Thickett, and Kathryn Ward
Ciancia and Drew Ciancia opened their homes to me for extended
periods. Robert Marc Friedman has been everything I could wish
for in a senior colleague: a constant source of guidance and reassur-
ance on everything from polar history to immigration regulations.
Klaus Dodds welcomed me into the Department of Geography at
Royal Holloway (University of London) in the fall of 2008, introduc-
ing me to the cutting edge of scholarship in critical geopolitics and
remaining unfailingly generous with his time and wisdom. Sverker
Sörlin brought me into his research group at the Royal Institute of
Technology and happily shared his vast knowledge of polar history in
Sweden and beyond. Harald Dag Jølle helped make Tromsø a second
home, assisting with accommodation and invaluable contacts (par-
ticularly in the History of Norwegian Polar Politics research group),
while tolerating my offensively poor attempts at cross-country skiing.
I am grateful to colleagues who commented on aspects of this project
Acknowledgments xi
in Cambridge (MA and UK), Columbus, Copenhagen, Egham, Friday
Harbor, the Lofoten Islands, Manchester, Oslo, Phoenix, Sydney,
Stockholm, Tacoma, Tromsø, Trondheim, Vancouver, Washington,
DC, and Århus. Last but certainly not least, the SCAR History Action
Group—led by Cornelia Lüdecke—provided a welcoming and
uniquely stimulating environment to develop my ideas. Rip Bulkeley
in particular was very generous in sharing his time and (prodigious)
knowledge.
One of the greatest pleasures of the research process has been
spending time with archivists and librarians. Numerous insights
and discoveries came over chats and coffee with wonderful peo-
ple around the world, many of whom went far beyond their pro-
fessional obligations to assist me. In Sydney, I thank Stephen
Martin and the staff at the Mitchell Library, State Library of New
South Wales. In Adelaide, I thank Mark Pharaoh at the Mawson
Antarctic Centre, South Australian Museum. In Cambridge,
I thank Naomi Boneham and Lucy Martin at the Scott Polar
Research Institute. In Oxford, I thank Colin Harris and the staff
at the Bodleian Library Special Collections; and Lucy McCann
at the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies,
Rhodes House. In Plymouth, I thank Linda Noble at the National
Marine Biological Library. In Southampton, I thank Adrian Burkett
at the National Oceanographic Library, National Oceanographic
Centre. In London, I thank Sarah Strong and the staff at the Royal
Geographical Society Archives; James Hatton and the staff at the
Natural History Museum Archives; Joanna Corden at the Royal
Society Archives; and the marvelously professional staff at The
National Archives in Kew. In Oslo, I thank Martina Gaux, Anne
Melgård, Signe Nyhuus-Eriksen, and the staff at the Manuscripts
section of the National Library. In Sandefjord, I thank Jan Erik
Ringstad at Chr. Christensen’s Whaling Museum; and Michael
Peters at the Whaling Collection, Sandefjord Municipal Library.
In Tromsø, I thank Svein-Olaf Nilssen and the staff at the State
Archive in Tromsø; and Ann Kristin Balto and Fred Inge Presteng
at the Norwegian Polar Institute. In Gothenburg, I thank Anders
Larsson at the Gothenburg University Library Special Collections.
And in Stockholm, I thank the wonderful Maria Asp, Åse Frid, and
Anne Miche de Malleray at the Center for the History of Science,
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Lance van Sittert and Lizé-
Marie van der Watt kindly arranged access for me to South Africa’s
recently digitized government records related to the Antarctic, a
treasure trove whose surface I have barely skimmed.