All Posts By

Media

Aug 28
Love0

Xavier Mertz

By Polar Explorers
Xavier Mertz (1882 – 1913) Xavier Mertz was a Swiss explorer from Basel. He took part in the Far Eastern Party, a 1912–13 sledging journey of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE), which claimed his life. The Mertz Glacier is named after him. As a young man, Mertz studied law and…
Read More
Aug 28
Love0

Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz

By Polar Explorers
Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz (1885-1966) Chester William Nimitz, Sr. was a fleet admiral of the United States Navy. As Chief of Naval Operations 1945-47, Nimitz was instrumental in the approval and deployment of the Operation Highjump, the largest Antarctic expedition ever organized. Naval Career and World War II Nimitz was…
Read More
Aug 28
Love0

Nils Otto Nordenskjöld

By Polar Explorers
Otto Nordenskjöld, a Swedish geologist and academic, came from a prominent family of scientists, explorers and humanitarians. He was one of the first geographers with a scholarly background to explore and research in Antarctica.
Read More
Aug 28
Love0

Captain Lawrence “Titus” Oates

By Polar Explorers
Captain Lawrence "Titus" Oates (1880 – 1912) Captain Lawrence "Titus" Oates was a British army officer, and later an Antarctic explorer, who accompanied Captain Robert Scott to the South Pole during the Terra Nova Expedition. On the return journey Oates, afflicted with gangrene and frostbite, walked from his tent into…
Read More
Aug 28
Love0

Nathaniel B. Palmer

By Polar Explorers
Nathaniel Brown Palmer (1799 – 1877) Nathaniel B. Palmer was an American seal hunter, explorer, sailing captain, and ship designer, after whom Palmer Land, a stretch of western Antarctic coast and islands, is named. Sealing and Antarctic Discoveries Young Nat played in his father's Stonington, CT shipyard, went to sea…
Read More
Aug 28
Love0

Herbert Ponting

By Polar Explorers
Herbert George Ponting, FRGS (March 21, 1870 – February 7, 1935) Herbert Ponting was a professional photographer and pioneer of modern polar photography. He is best known as the expedition photographer and cinematographer for Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole (1910–1913). In this…
Read More
Aug 28
Love0

Sir James Clark Ross

By Polar Explorers
SIR JAMES CLARK ROSS (1800-1862) Sir James Clark Ross was a British naval officer who carried out important magnetic surveys in the Arctic and Antarctic and who discovered the Ross Sea and the Victoria Land region of Antarctica. Early Life and Arctic Voyages Ross joined the navy at age 11…
Read More
Aug 28
Love0
A sepia-toned portrait of a man in a formal military uniform with epaulettes, medals, and a high collar. He has short hair and a serious expression, facing slightly to the right—evoking early Antarctic explorers bound for the South Pole.

Captain Robert Falcon Scott

By Polar Explorers, Polar History
CAPTAIN ROBERT FALCON SCOTT, CVO, RN (1868 –1912) Robert F. Scott was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition (1901–1904) and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition (1910–1913). On the first Antarctic expedition, Scott set a new southern record by…
Read More
Aug 28
Love0
A sepia-toned portrait of a serious-looking man in a suit and tie with slicked-back hair; signed Ernest H. Shackleton Oct 1909 in black ink, evoking his legendary South Pole expeditions to Antarctica.

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton

By Polar Explorers, Polar History
Ernest Shackleton was one of the most celebrated explorers of the Heroic Age. He led the 1907-09 Nimrod Antarctic expedition, which pioneered a route to the South Pole and reached latitude 88° 23'. His return to Antarctica in 1914 was intended to achieve the first trans-Antarctic crossing, but instead resulted…
Read More