A Day in Polar History

Tuesday, December 14 5:13 pm

Today marks a special day of discovery: nearly a century ago, on December 14, 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his team were the first people ever to reach the South Pole. His historic race against a team of British explorers, led by Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott, is the subject of the Museum’s thrilling exhibition Race to the End of the Earth, on view through January 2.

Kids can experience Amundsen’s epic journey firsthand in an interactive “scrapbook” on the Museum’s OLogy website. Ross MacPhee, curator of the Race to the End of the Earth exhibition, describes the legendary race to the South Pole with a selection of vintage photographs and snippets from historic letters. MacPhee, a polar explorer himself who has always been inspired by the heroic tales of the first Antarctic explorers, introduces kids to the British and Norwegian teams and the decisions their leaders faced — Camp on land or on ice shelf? Use dogs or horses? Wear fur or wool? — as they competed to be the first to reach the South Pole.

The expeditions unfold in compelling historic photographs. The British journey comes to life in snapshots of ponies aboard the ship Terra Nova, team members studying at base camp, and cooks making a stew called “hoosh.” Photographs of the Norwegian explorers include images of the mustached crew of the Norwegian Fram, an “underground village” dug in the ice, and men sewing reindeer skins into sleeping bags. The trek itself, a race against time and weather, is recorded through photos of experiments with motorized sleds, the tremendous effort of “man-hauling,” and the tent pitched at the Pole itself — as well as the haggard faces of the British, who arrived there second. The race to the South Pole is a great adventure story, and OLogy’s scrapbook tells it wonderfully.

Complete with maps that show the explorers’ routes, a chart that compares the teams’ strategies, and detailed captions, the scrapbook is rounded out by modern-day photos. Through these contemporary images, it’s easy to see that these expeditions paved the way for the thousands of researchers, like MacPhee, who travel to the “Continent of Science” today to search for answers under conditions unlike those at any other place on Earth.

Don’t forget to catch Race to the End of the Earth, open through January 2.

Lincoln Ellsworth: The Museum’s Own Polar Star

Friday, July 16 2:34 pm

Tin cup from Roald Amundsen's ship. © AMNH/C. Chesek

A corridor on the Museum’s first floor just off the Grand Gallery celebrates a relatively unsung hero of polar exploration: the American Lincoln Ellsworth, who was also a Museum Trustee. His bust graces the back wall of the narrow hallway, while the display cases on either side contain artifacts detailing Ellsworth’s efforts to become the first man to fly across both poles, a feat he accomplished in 1935 when he crossed the Antarctic in his plane Polar Star.

Ten years earlier, Ellsworth’s first attempt to fly over the North Pole teamed him with Norwegian Roald Amundsen, whose earlier overland competition with British Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott to reach the South Pole is chronicled in the Museum’s new exhibition Race to the End of the Earth. Through the special relationship between Amundsen and Ellsworth, the Museum Library’s Memorabilia Collection came to possess items the Norwegian explorer carried with him on his quest to reach the South Pole, including a sledge, chronometer, binoculars, shotgun, and a tin cup from the ship Fram, which are featured in the new exhibition.

Partially underwritten by his father James, a wealthy coal mine owner and banker, Ellsworth’s 1925 attempt to fl y over the North Pole failed. One year later, he and Amundsen succeeded in a dirigible, the Norge, built and piloted by Italian explorer Umberto Nobile. Ellsworth would go on to other expeditions, contributing geological and fossil specimens to the Museum’s collections in the process. He died in 1951 at age 71, but his legacy of support for the Museum and its mission continues to this day through an annual gift from The Lincoln Ellsworth Foundation.

A version of this story originally appeared in the Summer issue of Rotunda, the magazine for Museum Members.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Wednesday, June 23 11:36 am

Denton Ebel. © Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com

Here’s your chance to catch a glimpse of the Museum’s out-of-public-view fifth floor — and more!

A few weeks ago, a reporter and a photographer from Wired.com came to the American Museumof Natural History for a whirlwind tour. But this was not your typical visit to check out the blue whale, Great Canoe, and T. rex. Instead, it was a rare peek behind the scenes, at the scientific offices and other facilities that visitors don’t typically see. Highlights included stops at paleontologist Neil Landman’s office and at the Museum’s imaging facility, where Landman’s assistant zoomed in on the surface of an ammonite to check fossil preservation; a visit to the fossil prep lab, where preparators painstakingly scrape each fossil from rock; a chat with meteoriticist Denton Ebel; and a look at the bank of computers that power the Museum’s Space Shows and the Digital Universe Atlas.

After a visit to Curator Mark Norell’s office (where he described how to make sushi in the Gobi) and the Exhibition Department’s studio (where artists were putting the finishing touches on penguin models that are now part of the Museum’s Race to the End of the Earth exhibition), the Wired team also explored the basement. Just past the carpentry shop, they toured the Ambrose Monell Cryo Collection, a world-class facility for storing frozen tissue specimens, with Collections Manager Julie Feinstein. And next door to the blue whale—but out of public view—they discovered the Big Bone room, which houses all of the fossils that are, well, big.

For more, check out the full gallery, “Not For Public Display: Backstage at the American Museum of Natural History,” on Wired.com.

Take a Video Walkthrough of Race to the End of the Earth

Tuesday, June 08 11:11 am

Race to the End of the Earth, the major new exhibition now open at the American Museum of Natural History, recounts one of the most stirring tales of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration: the contest to be the first to reach the South Pole in 1911-1912.

The exhibition focuses on the challenges that the two leaders – Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and British Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott — faced as they undertook their 1,800-mile journeys from the shores of the Ross Sea to the Pole and back. Race to the End of the Earth also spotlights modern scientific exploration in the Antarctic and the latest research on this unique continent.

Photographs, paintings, videos, vivid dioramas, hands-on activities, and rare historical artifacts from this Heroic Age give visitors a feel for the remarkable story of Antarctic exploration and research during the past century.

In the News: Early Buzz for Race to the End of the Earth

Friday, May 28 11:58 am

Race to the End of the Earth, the major new exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History which opens May 29 and chronicles Roald Amundsen’s and Robert Scott’s race to reach the South Pole, is already topping must-see lists for Memorial Day weekend.

“The moment you enter this race you will be transported into a world of…science, awesome victories, and ice cold tragedies,” raves Ricky Alvarez in his write-up on ToDoNY.net. “I won’t spoil the ending…instead, I recommend that you experience the adventure.”

Over on Wired.com’s GeekDad, Dave Giancaspro recommends that parents catch the exhibition on May 29 with a visit to the Museum’s NYC International Polar Festival, a family-friendly program that includes performances, talks, demonstrations, and the chance to meet modern-day polar scientists and explorers.

Other reviewers are cheering the interactive features of Race to the End of the Earth, a special draw for children. “With family-friendly displays that employ viewfinders and touch screens, as well as full-scale dioramas of different Antarctic camps, exhibit goers can experience the same thirst for knowledge that drove Amundsen and Scott so many years ago,” writes The Family Vacationist.

In Time Out New York Kids, Eileen Clarke praises this “compelling story of two competing South Pole expeditions” for “provid[ing] fascinating glimpses of Antarctica then and now.” And blogger Jennifer Desrochers calls the exhibition “both informative and beautiful,” adding that it includes “more than enough content geared towards kids to make the experience educational…but also a ton of in-depth coverage to keep adults engaged. It’s a definite ‘see it!’”

Race to the End of the Earth opens May 29. © AMNH/D. Finnin