Proquest Disserststions

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Proquest Disserststions LOST SHIPS: PERFORMANCE AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies Of The University of Guelph By HEATHER DAVIS-FISCH In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July, 2009 O Heather Davis-Fisch, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et ?F? Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-68595-2 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-68595-2 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada ABSTRACT LOST SHIPS: PERFORMANCE AND THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE FRANKLIN EXPEDITION Heather Davis-Fisch Advisor: University of Guelph, 2009 Professor A. Filewod This thesis is an investigation of performances that emerged in response to the disappearance of the Franklin expedition, which went missing in the Canadian Arctic in 1845. 1 am concerned with two questions arising from the relationship between performance, loss, and remains: How do performances emerge as the remains of what has been loss? How can past performances be known through their remains when critical aspects of performance are lost as time passes? Franklin's 1845 expedition is unique in the annals of polar history because it ended in almost total disappearance: no journals or ship's logs from the expedition were ever retrieved, and the lone legible paper that was found provides little indication of what disaster befell the expedition. Most histories of the Franklin expedition use material and narrative fragments in order to reconstruct what happened to the men; however, reconstructions often fail to address the experiences of the men who abandoned the ships or the way that those left behind at home understood the expedition's absence. This project examines how those impacted by the expedition's disappearance expressed their experiences of loss through performance. By considering four sites of performance, one can trace how performance first facilitated the search for the missing men and then allowed the loss of the expedition to be melancholically engaged with and mourned. Performance initially held open the hope that the search could succeed, first in the shipboard pantomime, Zero, or Harlequin Light, which imaginatively transformed the Arctic into a familiar domestic space and then in the work of American explorer Charles Francis Hall who "acted Inuit" in order to demonstrate that survivors might still live. The second pair of examples consider how performances responded to the impossibility of knowing what actually happened to the expedition, first by examining how the experiences of the expedition's final survivors were preserved in the gestural performances of Inuit who came into contact with them, then by considering how the melodrama The Frozen Deep overwrote the incomprehensible disappearance of the expedition by producing a coherent narrative, allowing the British public to mourn the loss of Franklin and his men. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is my pleasure to thank a number of people who have shaped this dissertation and my work as a scholar. First, I would like to thank my advisor Alan Filewod for his challenging questions about spectatorship, performance, and theatre history, for his rigorous mentorship, and for his enthusiasm for this project over the last four years. My advisory committee members, Danny O'Quinn, Michelle Elleray, and Ute Lischke, have provided thoughtful criticism of this project, shaping my research and writing practices, and have shared each of their areas of expertise, enriching this dissertation immeasurably. Susan Nance, Smaro Kamboureli, and Paul Mulholland provided insightful feedback on this project during its early stages and encouraged me to think more deeply about my research methodology and theoretical approaches to this material. I would like to thank Stephen Johnson, Ann Wilson, and Mark Fortier for their careful readings of the final draft of this project, for their engaging and thought-provoking questions about the implications of this work, and for their suggestions for further ways to develop this project. My fellow graduate students at Guelph have been invaluable resources and caring friends. My parents, Keitha and Michael Davis, my brother Ian, Kim, Gary, and Andrew Fisch, and Tamara Hatton have encouraged me throughout the last four years and have provided support for this project in too many ways to list. Finally, I would like to thank Scott Davis-Fisch for his unconditional love and support and for reminding me everyday that there is a world outside of books. ? TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations iii Introduction: What Happened to the Franklin Expedition? 1 What Happened to Franklin's Men? 8 History and Loss 25 Performance Remains 36 1 . Harlequin in the Arctic 45 Austin's Happy Family: Transforming Discipline 51 Domesticating the Arctic 59 Harlequin Heads North 69 Imagining Inuit 83 2. Eating and Fucking: Charles Francis Hall Imagines "Going Native" 104 "Acting Inuit" 112 "Becoming Savage" 130 Mimesis and Franklin 166 3. All the Dead Voices 174 The Crack in the Ice 178 Cracking the Ice 1 95 Survival 202 4. The Designated Mourner 205 The Contents of the Kettles 209 Melodramatic Certainty 227 Mourning an Effigy 246 Imperial Spectatorship 260 The Frozen Deep in 1 866 270 Conclusion: Franklin Remains 277 Works Cited 280 11 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS "Scene from the Pantomime of 'Zero'" 76 Source: Illustrated Arctic News, pp. 55 Library and Archives Canada "Kallihirua" 84 Source: KaIH: The Esquimaux Christian, A Memoir, pp. 2 Library and Archives Canada "A scene from 'Frozen Deep'" 235 Source: The Illustrated London News, 17 January 1857, pp. 51 Reproduced with permission of the Mary Evans Picture Library in Introduction: What Happened to the Franklin Expedition? What wouldpapers mean to them? Cryptic marks, latitudes, signatures, journals, diaries ofdespair, official reports Nobody needs to read, l 've seen the realjournals You left us -you Franklin, you Crozier. l 've seen the skulls ofyour men in the snow, their sterile bones Arranged around cairns like compasses, Marking out all the latitudes and longitudes Ofmen. ~ Gwendolyn MacEwen, Terror and Erebus 132 On 12 January 1854, the Admiralty informed Lady Jane Franklin that it would remove her husband from its books on 31 March of the same year. This administrative decision effectively declared Sir John Franklin and the 128 men under his command dead. Lady Franklin protested the decision by trading the mourning clothes she had worn for years to signify his disappearance for garish pink and green dresses that suggested her denial of his death. In 1845, Franklin's expedition had disappeared into the central Arctic while attempting to chart the Northwest Passage. After dozens of search expeditions failed to find evidence of what happened, most people in England assumed that after close to a decade in the Arctic, Franklin and his men were dead. Jane Franklin, however, wanted proof of her husband's fate. Her protest, intended to spur further search attempts, was understood as a "complex piece of social semaphore" which indicated that "though she had mourned his absence readily, she declined to mourn his death until evidence of it was forthcoming" (Spufford 1 19). 1 By putting on a colourful dress, Lady Franklin made her missing husband appear: she conjured up a ghost. Unknown to Jane, John Franklin had died in 1847. Her performance contradicted this unknowable fact by producing a fictional reality in which he was still alive. A widow of her social standing and with her sense of matrimonial duty would never have flaunted convention by refusing to appropriately mourn her husband. Wearing pink and green dresses, therefore, visually signified that she was not a widow and that her husband was still alive. Her body, clothed in dresses appropriate to a married woman rather than a widowed one, called another body - her husband's living one - into presence. The uncanniness of the performance - its eerie ability to temporarily evoke a living Franklin - generated passionate responses. Lady Franklin's stepdaughter, Eleanor Gell, was so shocked that she wrote to an aunt that she trembled for her stepmother's mind, adding that her stepmother was "fast losing public sympathy by her strange conduct" (McGoogan, Lady Franklin 's 331). The performance raises important questions about the relationship between material remains and affective memory, demonstrating that Jane Franklin's relationship with her missing husband was marked by her melancholic attachment to him.
Recommended publications
  • PER ARDUA AD ARCTICUM the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic
    PER ARDUA AD ARCTICUM The Royal Canadian Air Force in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Edward P. Wood Edited and introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer Mulroney Institute of Government Arctic Operational Histories, no. 2 PER ARDUA AD ARCTICUM The Royal Canadian Air Force in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic © The author/editor 2017 Mulroney Institute St. Francis Xavier University 5005 Chapel Square Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada B2G 2W5 LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION Per Ardua ad Arcticum: The Royal Canadian Air Force in the A rctic and Sub- Arctic / Edward P. Wood, author / P. Whitney Lackenbauer, editor (Arctic Operational Histories, no. 2) Issued in electronic and print formats ISBN (digital): 978-1-7750774-8-0 ISBN (paper): 978-1-7750774-7-3 1. Canada. Canadian Armed Forces—History--20th century. 2. Aeronautics-- Canada, Northern--History. 3. Air pilots--Canada, Northern. 4. Royal Canadian Air Force--History. 5. Canada, Northern--Strategic aspects. 6. Arctic regions--Strategic aspects. 7. Canada, Northern—History—20th century. I. Edward P. Wood, author II. Lackenbauer, P. Whitney Lackenbauer, editor III. Mulroney Institute of Government, issuing body IV. Per Adua ad Arcticum: The Royal Canadian Air Force in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic. V. Series: Arctic Operational Histories; no.2 Page design and typesetting by Ryan Dean and P. Whitney Lackenbauer Cover design by P. Whitney Lackenbauer Please consider the environment before printing this e-book PER ARDUA AD ARCTICUM The Royal Canadian Air Force in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic Edward P. Wood Edited and Introduced by P. Whitney Lackenbauer Arctic Operational Histories, no.2 2017 The Arctic Operational Histories The Arctic Operational Histories seeks to provide context and background to Canada’s defence operations and responsibilities in the North by resuscitating important, but forgotten, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) reports, histories, and defence material from previous generations of Arctic operations.
    [Show full text]
  • Voyageur Philosophers: Exploring Canoe Expedition Pedagogy"
    Voyageur Philosophers: Exploring Canoe Expedition Pedagogy by Peter J. Vooys A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Education Queen’s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada April 2021 Copyright © Peter James Vooys, 2021 i If it is love that binds people to places in this nation of rivers and in this river of nations then one enduring expression of that simple truth, is surely the canoe. James Raffan ii Abstract In Canada, the canoe is an integral part of the history and development of nationhood (Raffan, 1999), a vital part of its leisure and tourism industry (Stebbins, 2005), and a central focus of many summer camps and outdoor education programs (Baker, 2005). While a recreation activity for many, each summer there are expedition canoeists who decide to paddle through the waterways of Canada over a distance and duration that many would consider extreme1. As canoeing in Canada is part of the national historiography (Dean, 2006; Raffan & Horwood, 1988), this study examines the personal and cultural components of canoeists who have embarked on cross-Canada or extended canoe expeditions of 30 days or more. The intent of this phenomenological study is to explore the motivations and meanings that expedition canoeists make of their travels. Through semi-structured interviews with “modern-day voyageurs”, this study explores how attitudes towards canoeing and wilderness travel are intertwined with national and historical perceptions, the human/nature relationship, spirituality, and the dual search for community and individual identity. The testimony of the participants suggests that there is increased advocacy and education from the paddlers upon their return and that the duration of their trip suggests an extension of flow theory into the expedition culture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reindeer Botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 1901–1977
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2012 The Reindeer Botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 1901–1977 Dathan, Wendy University of Calgary Press Dathan, Patricia Wendy. "The reindeer botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 1901-1977". Series: Northern Lights Series; 14, University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/49303 book http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Unported Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca Part One REINDEER SURVEY / EXPLORATION, 1901–1928 ° 160° 140° 120° 100° 80° 60° 40° 0 R U S S I A Wrangel Island 8 d n I a H l C A R C T I C O C E A N s K I U H e B A r C E ° e 0 e S R E E N L A N D 7 r m G i s D E N M A R K n e l Kotzebue g l S Barrow E E A B E A U F O R T S E A D Little Diomede Nome A Island V I S Devon Island S Unalakleet T Disko Resolute R Island A I Egedesminde T Banks Island Tuktoyaktuk B a Holsteinsborg L A S K A Fairbanks A Aklavik f f U S A i n Victoria I s Island l a n Godthaab d (Nuuk) Seward Norman Iqaluit Wells (Frobisher Bay) Y U K O N ° T E R R I T O R Y 60 O R T H W E S T E R R I T O R I E S HUDSON N T STRAIT Southampton Island UNGAVA NUNAVUT BAY NORTHWEST (after 1999) TERRITORIES (after 1999) H U D S O N B A Y B R I T I S H Churchill C O L U M B I A Fort McMurray Q U É B E C A L B E R T A M A N I T O B A S A S K A T - C H E W A N J A M E S B A Y Jasper Edmonton National 0° Park N T A R I O 5 0 500 1000 O Km Banff National Park Northern North America and Greenland: A.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reindeer Botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 1901–1977
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2012 The Reindeer Botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 1901–1977 Dathan, Wendy University of Calgary Press Dathan, Patricia Wendy. "The reindeer botanist: Alf Erling Porsild, 1901-1977". Series: Northern Lights Series; 14, University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Alberta, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/49303 book http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Unported Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca University of Calgary Press www.uofcpress.com THE REINDEER BOTANIST: ALF ERLING PORSILD, 1901–1977 by Wendy Dathan ISBN 978-1-55238-587-6 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. It is an electronic version of a book that can be purchased in physical form through any bookseller or on-line retailer, or from our distributors. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university purchase a print copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] Cover Art: The artwork on the cover of this book is not open access and falls under traditional copyright provisions; it cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission of the artists and their agents. The cover can be displayed as a complete cover image for the purposes of publicizing this work, but the artwork cannot be extracted from the context of the cover of this specific work without breaching the artist’s copyright. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This open-access work is published under a Creative Commons licence.
    [Show full text]
  • Travel & Exploration
    Montpelier Street, London I 26 February 2020 Montpelier Street, Travel & Exploration & Travel Travel & Exploration I Montpelier Street, London I 26 February 2020 25707 Travel & Exploration Montpelier Street, London | Wednesday 26 February 2020, at 1pm BONHAMS SALE NUMBER PRESS ENQUIRIES REGISTRATION Montpelier Street 25707 [email protected] IMPORTANT NOTICE Knightsbridge Please note that all customers, London SW7 1HH CATALOGUE CUSTOMER SERVICES irrespective of any previous activity £15 www.bonhams.com Monday to Friday with Bonhams, are required to 8.30am – 6pm complete the Bidder Registration ENQUIRIES Form in advance of the sale. The VIEWING Pictures +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 form can be found at the back of Leo Webster Sunday 23 February every catalogue and on our +44 (0) 20 7393 3863 LIVE ONLINE BIDDING IS 11am – 3pm website at www.bonhams.com [email protected] AVAILABLE FOR THIS SALE Monday 24 February and should be returned by email or 9am – 4:30pm Please email bids@bonhams. post to the specialist department Rhyanon Demery com with “Live bidding” in the Tuesday 25 February or to the bids department at +44 (0) 20 7393 3865 subject line 48 hours before [email protected] 9am – 4:30pm [email protected] the auction to register for this Wednesday 26 February service. To bid live online and / or 9am – 11am Veronique Scorer leave internet bids please go to +44 (0)20 7393 3962 Please see page 2 for bidder www.bonhams.com/auctions/25707 [email protected] BIDS information including after-sale and click on the Register to bid link +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 collection and shipment at the top left of the page.
    [Show full text]
  • A Transnational Study of Arctic Travel Narratives, 1818-1883
    From science in the Arctic to Arctic science: a transnational study of Arctic travel narratives, 1818-1883 Nanna Katrine Lüders Kaalund A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Science and Technology Studies, York University Toronto, Ontario April 2017 © Nanna Katrine Lüders Kaalund 2017 Abstract This thesis examines the making and communicating of knowledge about the Arctic from a transnational perspective between 1818 and the First International Polar Year in 1882-83. By examining both well-known and hitherto neglected narratives from Danish, British, and British-Canadian Arctic explorations, I show that changes in ideas about what it meant to be an authoritative observer of Arctic phenomena were linked to tensions in imperial ambitions, national identity, and international collaboration. By framing polar surveying in the broadest sense as the ordering and quantifying of nature through travel, I analyse how abstract notions of the Arctic became tangible in the nineteenth century. I am concerned with the practices of writing the Arctic experience, especially the relationship between science, and the strategies for constructing a trustworthy narrative voice. That is, I investigate the ways in which the identities of the explorers and the organizing bodies shaped the expeditions, and by extension the representation of the ventures, the explorers, and the science they produced. In doing so, I argue that the Arctic played a key role in shaping Western science, and understandings of national and imperial identities, and that travel narratives were a significant resource for communicating this knowledge.
    [Show full text]
  • Catalogue 51: Oct 2014
    Top of the World Books Catalogue 51: Oct 2014 Mountaineering This is largely a photographic account of the 1973 Italian expedition to Annapurna. The 11-member team followed the French first-ascent route up to Alpinist Magazine #47. Summer 2014. #26750, $14.95 Camp II on a plateau and then broke off in a new direction up the NW Spur. Accidents in North American Mountaineering. 2014 new. #26810, $12.- They had established Camp III and IV and reached 23,125’ when a storm American Alpine Club Journal. 2014 new. #26809, $49.95 broke. Two members stayed in Camp II while the others descended. Tragically, Abelein, Manfred. Shisha Pangma: Eine Deutsche Tibetexpedition a large ice and rock avalanche swept the plateau and eliminated Camp II and bezwingt den Letzten Achttausender [Shisha Pangma: A German Tibet the two climbers who remained there. The expedition was then abandoned. This Expedition Conquers the Last Eight-thousander]. 1980 Gustav Lübbe book weighs four pounds. First published in 1974, this edition is identical to the Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach, 1st, 4to, pp.216, photo frontis, 168 color & 52 bw first but also includes 24 pages in English. In English and Italian. photos, sketch, photo/map eps, blue cloth; dj fine, cloth fine. #12137, $75.- Bonington, Chris. Everest: South West Face. 1973 Hodder & Stoughton, Abelein (1930-2008) was a German professor of law, politician, pilot, and London, 1st, 8vo, pp.352, 80 color & 15 bw photos, blue cloth; signed Bonington mountaineer. He co-led, along with Günter Sturm, the 1980 German expedition & Doug Scott, dj clipped, else fine, cloth fine.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Legacies and Afterlives of Samuel Hearne
    Literary Legacies and Afterlives of Samuel Hearne Carole Gerson ecause of shifting notions of significance among different communities of reception, explorer and author Samuel Hearne (1745-92) occupies a curiously complex position in the Canadian Bcultural canon. Historians recognized the magnitude of his exploits by honouring him with designation as a National Historic Person in 1920; fifteen years later Fort Prince of Wales (near present-day Churchill, Manitoba), his primary locale in British North America, was named a National Historic Site and has since been restored. Official recognition continued when the Canadian government marked the bicentenary of Hearne’s arrival at the mouth of the Coppermine River with a com- memorative postage stamp in 1971. In the cultural realm, however, he is valued for his published narrative rather than for his physical accom- plishments, “as if [he] went through that land for a book,” in the words of poet John Newlove (429). While Hearne’s overland journey across the tundra in 1770-72 was an epic achievement, it did more to enlighten the Hudson’s Bay Company about northern resources than to contribute to the later formation of the Canadian nation. Hence, Hearne stands in contrast to other western Canadian explorers whose written narratives are secondary to the sites and outcomes of their travels, such as Simon Fraser, whose voyage down the river that bears his name demonstrat- ed that it was not navigable for trade, and George Vancouver, whose friends’ names dot the landscape that would become the major urban centre of Vancouver.1 But Hearne produced a more readable account of his travels, lavishly published in 1795, with the result that his book has long been a consistent component of Canada’s national heritage.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Charles Darwin Really Was the Naturalist on HMS Beagle
    Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences xxx (2013) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/shpsc ‘‘My appointment received the sanction of the Admiralty’’: Why Charles Darwin really was the naturalist on HMS Beagle John van Wyhe National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore article info abstract Article history: For decades historians of science and science writers in general have maintained that Charles Darwin was Received 20 October 2012 not the ‘naturalist’ or ‘official naturalist’ during the 1831–1836 surveying voyage of HMS Beagle but Received in revised form 15 March 2013 instead Captain Robert FitzRoy’s ‘companion’, ‘gentleman companion’ or ‘dining companion’. That is, Dar- Available online xxxx win was primarily the captain’s social companion and only secondarily and unofficially naturalist. Instead, it is usually maintained, the ship’s surgeon Robert McCormick was the official naturalist because Keywords: this was the default or official practice at the time. Although these views have been repeated in countless Charles Darwin accounts of Darwin’s life, this essay aims to show that they are incorrect. Naturalist Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. HMS Beagle When citing this paper, please use the full journal title Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 1. Introduction one of these field-defining refutations I anticipate my readers will be more than a little sceptical. The ‘companion’ interpretation has, The voyage of the Beagle remains one of the most important after all, opened up the history of the Beagle voyage and Darwin’s and famous scientific expeditions in history.
    [Show full text]
  • Sir John Franklin's Snowshoes Antony Lee, the Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire
    Lincolnshire Past and Present, issue 97, Autumn 2014 Sir John Franklin's snowshoes Antony Lee, The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire The recent announcement of the discovery of one of the ships used by Sir John Franklin in his fated final expedition of 1845 made waves around the world and put the Lincolnshire town of Spilsby in the spotlight. Future research at the site will hopefully identify whether the ship is HMS Erebus or HMS Terror, and ultimately shed light onto the fate of one of Lincolnshire’s greatest sons and his crew. Lincolnshire’s museums and archives collections contain a number of objects and documents relating to Franklin’s career, expeditions and even the search for him in the years following his disappearance, but few items are so unusual or as poignant as a pair of snowshoes worn by Franklin himself. The shoes were donated to the museum by Franklin’s great niece in 1922 and are an evocative survival of early 19th Century exploration, complete with their pointed wooden frames and criss-crossed animal hide. A contemporary note attached to one of the shoes attests that they were worn by Franklin in 1820, dating them to one of Franklin’s earliest and most controversial Arctic ventures - the Coppermine expedition of 1819-1822. Franklin’s naval career was long and distinguished. After persuading his father to allow him to join the Royal Navy aged 14, he witnessed some of the most significant events of his age. He sailed with his uncle, Matthew Flinders, on his landmark circumnavigation of Australia and saw military action at the battles of Copenhagen and Trafalgar.
    [Show full text]
  • Arctic Council Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
    Polar Libraries Colloquy POLAR LIBRARIES COLLOQUY POLAR LIBRARIES COLLOQUY POLAR LIBRARIES COLLOQUY Spring 2018, Issue 79 Spring 2018 - Issue 79 Spring 2018 - Issue Rovaniemi Warmly Welcomes PLC 2018! The Polar Libraries Colloquy in Rovaniemi is guiding principles—how to implement the United approaching very soon. The Welcome Reception Nations Sustainable Development Goals in the takes place on 10 June 2018, with the conference Arctic and how to bring those goals to Arctic occuring on the 11th–15th and the optional post- science, policy, and the economy. conference field trip on the 16th to the Tornio River Valley. There is still time to register so that you The Rovaniemi Arctic Spirit Conference maintains can join us in experiencing the endless days of the and continues the heritage of what is known as the northern summer here on the Finnish Arctic Circle. Rovaniemi process, the first step in governmental cooperation between the Arctic states that led to Finland’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council the adoption of the Arctic Environmental Protection Finland is the current chair of the Arctic Council Strategy in 1991. The current Arctic Council and from 2017 to 2019, having taken over the two-year its structures are mainly a result of the Rovaniemi rotating chairmanship from the US at the Fairbanks process. International Arctic conferences held in (Alaska) ministerial meeting in May 2017. In Rovaniemi in 2013, 2015, and 2017 continue the November 2017, Rovaniemi hosted the Arctic Spirit tradition of strengthening peace, stability, and Conference, the first large-scale public Arctic event cooperation in the Arctic region.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Legacies and Afterlives of Samuel Hearne Carole Gerson
    Document generated on 10/03/2021 3:20 a.m. Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne Literary Legacies and Afterlives of Samuel Hearne Carole Gerson Volume 42, Number 1, 2017 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/scl42_1art06 See table of contents Publisher(s) The University of New Brunswick ISSN 0380-6995 (print) 1718-7850 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Gerson, C. (2017). Literary Legacies and Afterlives of Samuel Hearne. Studies in Canadian Literature / Études en littérature canadienne, 42(1), 110–129. © 2017. All rights reserved. This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/ This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ Literary Legacies and Afterlives of Samuel Hearne Carole Gerson ecause of shifting notions of significance among different communities of reception, explorer and author Samuel Hearne (1745-92) occupies a curiously complex position in the Canadian Bcultural canon. Historians recognized the magnitude of his exploits by honouring him with designation as a National Historic Person in 1920; fifteen years later Fort Prince of Wales (near present-day Churchill, Manitoba), his primary locale in British North America, was named a National Historic Site and has since been restored. Official recognition continued when the Canadian government marked the bicentenary of Hearne’s arrival at the mouth of the Coppermine River with a com- memorative postage stamp in 1971.
    [Show full text]