Topic: Arctic Exploration

Arctic exploration has engaged adventurers and scientists from many countries and cultures for centuries. It began in earnest with the North Atlantic voyages of the Vikings in the 10^th century. Norse explorers, including Erik the Red and Leif Erikson, are often credited with some of the earliest recorded exploration of the Arctic regions, particularly Greenland and parts of the northeastern coast of North America. Key historical figures in Arctic exploration in later years include Martin Frobisher, a confidant of Queen Elizabeth who led three British expeditions searching for the Northwest Passage to China in 1576-78 but never got farther than Baffin Island. Two hundred and fifty years later Sir John Franklin continued the search in 1845, reaching the Central Canadian Arctic, where his entire crew disappeared, prompting multiple rescue missions that highlighted the dangers of Arctic exploration. Adolphus Greely led a U.S. Army mission from 1881-84 known as the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition that gathered extensive scientific data and documented life in the Arctic. Greely’s expedition faced extreme hardships, including food shortages, which only he and a handful of compatriots survived.

Robert Peary is often credited as the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909, though his exact claims have been contested even as his expeditions to Greenland and beyond contributed significantly to the mapping of Arctic territories. Roald Amundsen became the first to navigate the Northwest Passage successfully between 1903 and 1906 and ultimately reached the South Pole on another expedition in 1911. Controversy often surrounded these high-profile ventures, as in the case of Frederick Cook, who claimed without conclusive proof to have reached the North Pole before Peary. One of the most persistent and productive American Arctic explorers was Vilhjalmur Stefansson, of Icelandic and Canadian background. Initially trained in anthropology, he spent a lifetime exploring the Western Arctic and its cultures, became notorious for his role in the ill-fated Karluk voyage, advised governments, and popularized “the friendly Arctic” by living with its peoples and creating a vast Arctic literature housed in Dartmouth’s Rauner Special Collections Library.

The Arctic has been one of the last frontiers of exploration in the world. After hundreds of years of “discovery” exploration, scientists and anthropologists assisted by modern technology have begun to document Arctic lands, environments, and cultures, leading to advances in navigation, understanding of global climate systems, and awareness of indigenous rights and traditions. Modern Arctic exploration combines scientific research with concerns about climate change as temperatures rising three or four times faster than other global regions reshape the Arctic by opening new shipping channels and access to new lands and undersea resources. Researchers study ice melt, search for oil and minerals, and promote wildlife conservation and indigenous lifestyles to better understand how to protect these fragile ecosystems. Arctic exploration, long conducted as an extension of economics and national interest, despite efforts to foster circumpolar cooperation, continues to be plagued by politics.