Article ID: CBB109397659

In the silence of Virgohamna. Traces of the 1897 Swedish polar expedition between geohistorical observation and memory (2020)

unapi

At the north-western edge of Svalbard archipelago there are two small islands, Danskøya (Danes Island) and Amsterdamøya (Amsterdam Island), currently depopulated. In 1896 and 1897, Swedish engineer and explorer Salomon August Andrée chose small Virgohamna (Virgo Bay) on the northern shore of Danes Island, as starting point to reach the North Pole by a hydrogen balloon. Andrée’s expedition was quite ahead of his time, as well as reckless to some degree: it was to tragically fail and to disappear in mystery until the unexpected discovery of its remnants over thirty years later. Yet, the endeavor remarkably impressed the public of its time and inspired the following generation of explorers. In 2018, more than a century after Andrée’s flight, the Polarquest2018 expedition made a brief stop-over in the area and an expeditive survey with drones was conducted. The survey allowed to effectively acquire a view of the current conditions of the historical site, recognizing - among many other things - some minor remainings of the 1897 structures. The fading traces of Andrée’s base retain some archaeological value, but the main asset of the place is indeed its capability of impressing the visitor’s imagination. This is due to the fact that it is possible to identify dimensions, shapes and a few remnants of the once-existing Andrée’s infrastructure, and this occurs in an environmental and geographic context which underwent minimal change in more than a century. This allows to perceive, to some degree, its past nature as a place where the members of the expedition lived and operated, in such a way so as to be a relevant memorial in the history of Arctic exploration.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB109397659/

Similar Citations

Book Giuseppe Nencioni; (2018)
Gli Italiani e le esplorazioni artiche (/isis/citation/CBB951213332/)

Book Sollinger, Gunther; (2005)
S. A. Andree: The Beginning of Polar Aviation 1896--1897 (/isis/citation/CBB000650000/)

Book Wråkberg, Urban; (1999)
The Centennial of S. A. Andree's North Pole Expedition (/isis/citation/CBB000110122/)

Book Sörlin, Sverker; (2013)
Science, Geopolitics and Culture in the Polar Region: Norden beyond Borders (/isis/citation/CBB001421143/)

Article Pierre Briant; (2013)
La figure de Néarque dans l’historiographie européenne (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles) (/isis/citation/CBB289056239/)

Article Markin, Viacheslav A.; (2003)
Pervaia mezhdunarodnaia kompleksnaia ekspeditsiia v Arktike (/isis/citation/CBB000321051/)

Book Giotto Dainelli; Maria Mancini; (2018)
I Ricordi della mia vita. Il contributo di Giotto Dainelli (1878-1968) alla Scienza e alla Storia (/isis/citation/CBB942444908/)

Chapter Simona Boscani Leoni; Sarah Baumgartner; Meike Knittel; (2021)
Introduction: From Switzerland to the Indies (/isis/citation/CBB610089546/)

Book Rosella Perugi; (2019)
Altrove: Viaggiatrici italiane nell’Europa del Nord (/isis/citation/CBB772175928/)

Article Sara Albuquerque; (2022)
A complementary note to Welwitsch's map of travellers in Africa (/isis/citation/CBB292349978/)

Book Giovanni Modaffari; (2021)
La deriva di Antonio Snider Pellegrini. Viaggi, imprese, invenzioni (/isis/citation/CBB022379016/)

Book Simona Boscani Leoni; Sarah Baumgartner; Meike Knittel; (2021)
Connecting Territories: Exploring People and Nature, 1700–1850 (/isis/citation/CBB246418898/)

Book Claudio Greppi; (2021)
Tracce di Humboldt. Osservare, descrivere, misurare (/isis/citation/CBB352822029/)

Book Hill, Jen; (2008)
White Horizon: The Arctic in the Nineteenth-Century British Imagination (/isis/citation/CBB000830506/)

Book Lynn, Michael R.; (2010)
The Sublime Invention: Ballooning in Europe, 1783--1820 (/isis/citation/CBB001022782/)

Book Althoff, William F.; (2007)
Drift Station: Arctic Outposts of Superpower Science (/isis/citation/CBB000772047/)

Article Martin Dribe; Mats Olsson; Patrick Svensson; (2017)
The agricultural revolution and the conditions of the rural poor, southern Sweden, 1750–1860 (/isis/citation/CBB511267631/)

Authors & Contributors
Meike Knittel
Baumgartner, Sarah
Wisselgren, Per
Boscani Leoni, Simona
Nencioni, Giuseppe
Dainelli, Giotto
Concepts
Geography
Explorers and Exploration
Science and society
Science and politics
Travel; exploration
Geology
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
20th century, early
Ancient
Places
Sweden
Polar regions
Italy
Latin America
Europe
Arctic regions
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment