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Race to the End of the Earth at the Natural History Museum
New exhibit on the exploration of our last great frontier
Photo: Museum of Natural History
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There are seven continents on our planet, but only six are inhabited. The seventh, Antarctica, remains a hazy mystery to most and a truly alien environment to all. Aside from the bottom of the ocean, there is probably no other place on Earth so contrary to the human experience; five-and-a-half million miles of icy tundra and freezing temperatures make Antarctica highly resistant to exploration and occupation. While myths and legends of a “southern land” made of ice date back thousands of years (beginning with Aristotle’s concept of a “Terra Australis”), the southern-most landmass on Earth has only begun to be unveiled in the past few hundred years. One of the greatest, and perhaps most dramatic stories of Arctic Exploration, is currently serving as the basis for the new exhibition “Race to the End of the Earth,” which runs from now until January 2, 2011 at the American Museum of Natural History (Central Park West at 79th Street).
The new exhibition sheds light on the competition between famous explorers Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian who was the first to transverse the Northwest Passage, and Robert Falcon Scott, an English Naval Officer who lead the unfortunate “Terra Nova Expedition” that froze to death attempting to beat Amundsen in exploring the Antarctic first. Ellen V. Futter, the Natural History Museum’s president, says, “The race to the South Pole by Amundsen and Scott is one of the greatest stories of discovery, courage and endurance in expedition history. The museum can well identify with Scott and Amundsen’s thirst for adventure and knowledge about the world as it has, since 1887, conducted thousands of field expeditions to the far reaches of the globe, including to Antarctica, to study the natural world and human cultures”. The exhibit’s Lead Curator Ross MacPhee further states, “The [exhibit] is partly a presentation of a true-life adventure story and partly a display of classic and modern methods of polar travel, science and technology. But overall it is a celebration of what motivates us as humans to go out to explore and understand our world”.
“Race to the End of the Earth” promises to reveal to any who visit the courage that went into the exploration of our planet’s farthest reaches in the age when there were still blank spaces on the map. For more information, please visit the museum’s website.