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The Arctic region has been the subject of much popular writing. This book considers nineteenth-century representations of the Arctic, and draws upon an extensive range of evidence that will allow the 'widest connections' to emerge from a 'cross-disciplinary analysis' using different methodologies and subject matter. It positions the Arctic alongside more thoroughly investigated theatres of Victorian enterprise. In the nineteenth century, most images were in the form of paintings, travel narratives, lectures given by the explorers themselves and photographs. The book explores key themes in Arctic images which impacted on subsequent representations through text, painting and photography. For much of the nineteenth century, national and regional geographical societies promoted exploration, and rewarded heroic endeavor. The book discusses images of the Arctic which originated in the activities of the geographical societies. The Times provided very low-key reporting of Arctic expeditions, as evidenced by its coverage of the missions of Sir John Franklin and James Clark Ross. However, the illustrated weekly became one of the main sources of popular representations of the Arctic. The book looks at the exhibitions of Arctic peoples, Arctic exploration and Arctic fauna in Britain. Late nineteenth-century exhibitions which featured the Arctic were essentially nostalgic in tone. The Golliwogg's Polar Adventures, published in 1900, drew on adult representations of the Arctic and will have confirmed and reinforced children's perceptions of the region. Text books, board games and novels helped to keep the subject alive among the young.
those given by Nansen to very large audiences, had the widest influence. Original works of Arctic art and photography were rarely exhibited, and then only to small audiences, so it was as illustrations in texts that they reached a wider public. In this chapter key themes in Arctic images which impacted on subsequent representations will be explored through text, painting and photography. Defining the
with the tragedy of Franklin. Consequently advertisers avoided polar subjects, as Arctic signifiers would not at that time have created positive associations. Images in early advertising were restricted to imperial subjects. However, it is clear that by the 1890s the press had successfully projected Arctic images on to the nation’s consciousness and advertisers felt able to use Arctic icons in
earlier part of the century many young people would have visited, alongside adults, the various entertainments that incorporated Arctic images, and in the second half they might have read books, newspapers, weekly and monthly journals that were aimed at their parents, as well as attending local and national sources of entertainment at which the Arctic was represented. However, such adult media were on
end of the century, James Clark Ross’s voyage of 1839–43 inspired a number of paintings by London and provincial artists, in which the landscape, skyscape and ice features were imagined, and were largely based on earlier Arctic images. The most influential imagining of the Antarctic Ocean was Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Although originally published in 1798, and illustrated by J
been less familiar with Arctic images, is significant as an indicator of the wider diffusion of representations. Exhibitions such as this attracted a respectable audience, since even the cheapest tickets in the ‘Standing Gallery’ cost 6 d. The wide range of exhibitions promoted during the Victorian era were on the whole designed to appeal to a wealthy public, interested in their educational benefits