“Involuntarily We Listen”: Hearing the Aurora Borealis in Nineteenth-Century Arctic Exploration and Science (2013)
AURORAS *HISTORY *AURORAL substorms *DISCOVERIES in geography -- History ARCTIC regions DISCOVERY & exploration NORTHWEST Passage CANADA, Northern People: FRANKLIN, John, Sir, 1786-1847 Abstract (English): In western science the Aurora Borealis has been a fiercely contested site of inquiry with little agreement as to its nature until the twentieth century. This essay surveys the history of auroral science up to the nineteenth century and then complicates the traditional indigenous/western dichotomy regarding supernatural or anomalous experiences by examining occasions when nineteenth-century Arctic explorers, scientists, and fur traders became enchanted by the Aurora Borealis. Drawing mainly on cases from the period of the British quest for the Northwest Passage through the (now Canadian) Arctic (c.1818-59), it demonstrates how scientific uncertainty allowed for occasions when Arctic explorers, scientists, and other travellers could self-consciously become enchanted by aurorae. If we work from the contention that cycles of re-enchantment, rather than sudden disenchantment constitute the modern ising process, then we can challenge the notion of a stable scientific observer of the Aurora Borealis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Cavell, Janice;
(2013)
Publishing Sir John Franklin's Fate: Cannibalism, Journalism, and the 1881 Edition of Leopold McClintock's The Voyage of the “Fox” in the Arctic Seas
(/isis/citation/CBB001201827/)
Book
Lambert, Andrew D.;
(2009)
The Gates of Hell: Sir John Franklin's Tragic Quest for the North West Passage
(/isis/citation/CBB001033453/)
Chapter
Ulrike Spring;
(2016)
Materializing the Aurora Borealis: Carl Weyprecht and Scientific Documentation of the Arctic
(/isis/citation/CBB137825257/)
Chapter
Fornasiero, Jean;
West-Sooby, John;
(2011)
Naming and Shaming: The Baudin Expedition and the Politics of Nomenclature in the Terres Australes
(/isis/citation/CBB001201512/)
Article
Krasnikova, O. A.;
(2006)
The Academy of Sciences and Arctic Explorations: The Polar Commission, 1914--1936
(/isis/citation/CBB000930319/)
Book
Michael Bravo;
(2019)
North Pole: Nature and Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB094804985/)
Article
Guly, Henry;
(2012)
Dr. Reginald Koettlitz (1860--1916): Arctic and Antarctic Explorer
(/isis/citation/CBB001200783/)
Article
Froggatt, Peter;
Walker, Brian M.;
(2012)
From Precocious Fame to Mature Obscurity: David Walker (1837--1917) MD, LRSCIi, Surgeon and Naturalist to the Fox Arctic Expedition of 1857--59
(/isis/citation/CBB001200784/)
Article
Krzysztof Ludwik Birkenmajer;
(2017)
Polskie badania polarne (zarys) / Polish Polar Research (Outline)
(/isis/citation/CBB963951811/)
Book
Emil Bessels;
(2016)
Polaris: The Chief Scientist's Recollections of the American North Pole Expedition, 1871-73
(/isis/citation/CBB695538374/)
Article
Guly, H. R.;
(2013)
Scurvy and Other Vitamin Deficiencies during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration
(/isis/citation/CBB001200831/)
Article
Fiona Amery;
(2022)
Capturing the Northern Lights: Standardizing the Practice of Auroral Photography during the Second International Polar Year, 1932–1933
(/isis/citation/CBB532810281/)
Article
Marthe Fjellestad;
(2022)
Photography in the Arctic Archipelago during the First International Polar Year, 1882–1883
(/isis/citation/CBB131981398/)
Thesis
Stuhl, Andrew;
(2013)
Empires on Ice: Science, Nature, and the Making of the Arctic
(/isis/citation/CBB001567488/)
Book
Byrne, Angela;
(2013)
Geographies of the Romantic North: Science, Antiquarianism, and Travel, 1790--1830
(/isis/citation/CBB001452023/)
Thesis
Thode, Simon;
(2013)
The Practices of Observational Science and the Development of the American Nation in the Trans-Appalachian West, 1763--1814
(/isis/citation/CBB001567528/)
Article
Morey, G. B;
(1999)
Newton Horace Winchell, the George Armstrong Custer Expedition of 1874, and the “Discovery” of Gold in the Black Hills, Dakota Territory, U. S. A.
(/isis/citation/CBB000111716/)
Chapter
Dritsas, Lawrence;
(2011)
Expeditionary Science: Conflicts of Method in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Geographical Discovery
(/isis/citation/CBB001231563/)
Article
Peters, Rosemary A.;
(2009)
Mapping the Desert: Arthur Rimbaud, Charles de Foucauld, and the Société de Géographie, 1884--85
(/isis/citation/CBB001034164/)
Book
Duyker, Edward;
(2003)
Citizen Labillardière: A Naturalist's Life in Revolution and Exploration (1755--1834)
(/isis/citation/CBB000350418/)
Be the first to comment!