Scott's and Shackleton's Antarctic Expeditions: Historical Science and How Contemporary Science Informs History

This talk will review the scientific research undertaken and technology utilized on Scott’s and Shackleton’s Antarctic expeditions. It will examine how contemporary science can enhance our historical knowledge, discuss how the expeditions' related material culture can have contemporary scientific value and concludewith a historiographical overview.

 

Scott’s and Shackleton’s Antarctic expeditions included scientific research that produced baseline data, and several members of the expeditions went on to have significant careers in scientific research and academic leadership. The expeditions also utilized specially adapted technology. Overshadowing the expeditions was the loss of Scott and his four companions as they returned from the South Pole in 1912. Professor Susan Solomon’s research, comparing contemporary metrological records with Scott’s records, demonstrates how modern science can inform our understanding of the extreme weather event that befell Scott’s party.  The expeditions’ material culture has been utilized in environmental science.   

 

This talk also establishes Scott and Shackleton as cultural icons, symbolically associated with social and cultural changes, with science being emphasized in recent discourses. In conclusion, the speaker will discuss his positionality as a researcher, curator and member of the groups that organized centennial memorial services for Captain Scott at St Paul’s Cathedral and Sir Ernest Shackleton at Westminster Abbey.

 

For further information, please contact: Tom Lassman at 202-633- 2419; lassmant@si.edu.

 

NON-SMITHSONIAN VISITORS MUST RSVP NO LATER THAN 48 HOURS BEFORE THE SEMINAR. On the day of the seminar, please report to the South Security Desk at the Museum’s Independence Avenue entrance. Those holding SI ID badges may proceed  directly to the Director’s Conference Room on the 3rd floor.