The University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences Institute of Geography A SCOT OF THE ANTARCTIC: THE RECEPTION AND COMMEMORATION OF WILLIAM SPEIRS BRUCE M.Sc. by Research in Geography Innes M. Keighren 12 September 2003 Declaration of originality I hereby declare that this dissertation has been composed by me and is based on my own work. 12 September 2003 ii Abstract 2002–2004 marks the centenary of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. Led by the Scots naturalist and oceanographer William Speirs Bruce (1867–1921), the Expedition, a two-year exploration of the Weddell Sea, was an exercise in scientific accumulation, rather than territorial acquisition. Distinct in its focus from that of other expeditions undertaken during the ‘Heroic Age’ of polar exploration, the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, and Bruce in particular, were subject to a distinct press interpretation. From an examination of contemporary newspaper reports, this thesis traces the popular reception of Bruce—revealing how geographies of reporting and of reading engendered locally particular understandings of him. Inspired, too, by recent work in the history of science outlining the constitutive significance of place, this study considers the influence of certain important spaces—venues of collection, analysis, and display—on the conception, communication, and reception of Bruce’s polar knowledge. Finally, from the perspective afforded by the centenary of his Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, this paper illustrates how space and place have conspired, also, to direct Bruce’s ‘commemorative trajectory’—to define the ways in which, and by whom, Bruce has been remembered since his death. iii Acknowledgements For their advice, assistance, and encouragement during the research and writing of this thesis I should like to thank Michael Bolik (University of Dundee); Margaret Deacon (Southampton Oceanography Centre); Graham Durant (Hunterian Museum); Narve Fulsås (University of Tromsø); Stanley K. Hunter (Scottish Exhibitions Study Group); Theodore J. Karamanski (Loyola University Chicago); Steven MacDiarmid (The Sunday Post); Murdo J. S. Macdonald (University of Dundee); Kenny Mathieson (The Herald); Graeme Morton (University of Edinburgh); Murray G. H. Pittock (University of Strathclyde); Russell A. Potter (University of Rhode Island); Peter Speak (Scott Polar Research Institute); David H. Stam (Syracuse University); and Deidre C. Stam (New York Center for the Book). Particular thanks are due to the Arts and Humanities Research Board and to the staff of the British Library Newspaper Library; Edinburgh University Library (Special Collections); Glasgow University Archive Services; the Royal Geographical Society; the Royal Scottish Geographical Society; the National Library of Scotland; the National Museums of Scotland; and the Scott Polar Research Institute. For their enthusiasm and skilful guidance, I am sincerely grateful to Geoffrey N. Swinney and to Charles W. J. Withers. iv List of figures Figure 1. The Ark and the Scottish Marine Station. 15 Figure 2. Sir John Murray, c. 1910. 16 Figure 3. Tow-net washing, 1894. 17 Figure 4. Portrait sketch of Patrick Geddes, c. 1890. 18 Figure 5. Handbill advertising a lecture delivered by Bruce and Burn Murdoch to the Granton Parish Guild. 30 Figure 6. Tower covered with ice crystals after great storm. MacDougal and Neill the cook. Photograph depicting the Ben Nevis Observatory during winter. 32 Figure 7. Icebergs and the Aurora Borealis. An engraving depicting H.M.S. Erebus and Terror in the Arctic Ocean. 49 Figure 8. Balæna entering the dock at Dundee. 56 Figure 9. The celebrated meeting of Nansen and Jackson at Franz Josef Land. 63 Figure 10. Reporting of the Scottish and British National Antarctic Expeditions by The Times 1900–1905. 72 Figure 11. Omond House from Scotia Bay, c. 1904. 74 Figure 12. Doctor Roberto Bruce. A caricature of Bruce. 78 Figure 13. Spanish-language newspaper depicting the reception of Bruce and the Expedition. 82 Figure 14. Gilbert Kerr with an Emperor penguin off Coats Land, 1904. 84 Figure 15. Rudmose Brown, Wilton, and Harvey Pirie in the main laboratory of the Scotia. 91 v Figure 16. Bruce in the Antarctic Room of the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory, c. 1910. 99 Figure 17. Specimens laid out for examination, c. 1910. 100 Figure 18. Technician preparing a mould of a seal skull, c. 1910. 100 Figure 19. The Concert Hall and the Kelvin Hall, 1911. 110 Figure 20. Pages of Polar Record on which reference is made to Bruce, 1930s–1990s. 119 Figure 21. Cartoon strip depicting Bruce and the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. 121 Figure 22. Members of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society performing The Scotia suite of Scottish country dances at Glasgow City Chambers, 30 October 2002. 129 Figure 23. For Scotland and Science. Vanessa Collingridge’s first dispatch on the second Scotia Expedition. 130 Figure 24. Entrance to William Speirs Bruce: the first polar hero. 133 Figure 25. Representation of the hero’s lifecycle. 134 Figure 26. Robert Headland addressing invited guests at the opening of the Scott Polar Research Institute’s exhibition A century of Antarctic meteorology. 136 vi List of tables Table 1. Recent newspaper headlines illustrating Bruce’s transition from ‘cold scientist’ to ‘forgotten hero’. 124 vii Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv List of figures v List of tables vii 1 Introduction 1 Exploring the situated nature of scientific knowledge: tracing the spatial turn 3 Geographies of reception: recovering the popular understanding of Bruce 6 Summary 12 2 William Speirs Bruce: a life in context 13 An Edinburgh enlightenment 14 A polar apprenticeship 21 The national expeditions 37 Summary 44 3 Of poles and pressmen: reporting William Speirs Bruce 46 From sublime to sensation: the poles in popular understanding 46 Creating a sensation: the press and polar exploration 50 The Dundee Antarctic Expedition: reporting Terra Australis Incognita 54 The Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition: a sensational interlude 60 No heroes, no sensation: reporting the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 65 viii Summary 87 4 Situating the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 89 Spaces of production 90 (Re)presenting the Expedition: venues of presentation, sites of struggle 102 Summary 113 5 Remembering to forget William Speirs Bruce 114 Commemorating Bruce 116 The spirit of the Scotia: commemorating the centenary of the Expedition 123 6 Conclusion 137 Bibliography 141 ix 1 Introduction A man of the type of Dr William S. Bruce has simply enormous local influence, and stimulates the mind of young Scottish scientists. Transfer him to England and the influence is greatly reduced (Edinburgh Evening News 6 December 1909). In the Main Hall of the Royal Museum on Edinburgh’s Chambers Street, a banner hangs from the first-floor gallery. “Polar explorers”, it reads. “Who do you think were the heroes? Scott? Amundsen? Nansen? Shackleton?” The title of the exhibition, commemorating the centenary of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902– 1904), proffers an alternative: “William Speirs Bruce: The First Polar Hero”. This legend is, I would argue, both striking and problematic. Was Bruce—a polar scientist and oceanographer who completed thirteen high-latitude expeditions during a thirty- year career—really a hero? Did he enjoy the public acclaim and press attention afforded to his contemporaries? Or, perhaps cynically, does this exhibition’s title misrepresent Bruce? Is Bruce, as it were, being remade? Is his story being revised to appeal to a public, particularly the Scottish public, in the centenary of his Antarctic Expedition? In engaging with these and other questions, this thesis seeks not only to address the complex notion of heroism but also, more particularly, to contemplate from a constructivist perspective Bruce’s exploratory career, his popular reception, and his commemoration. In so doing, I hope to make clear that situation, both spatial and temporal, mattered not simply to the production of Bruce’s polar knowledge, but also to its reception—to the way the way in Bruce was encountered, understood, 1 Introduction accepted, or repudiated by his contemporary public. Moreover, in observing Bruce from the vantage point of the centenary of his Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, I intend also to consider how the memory of Bruce, how his position in collective consciousness, has been expressed in, and has been reshaped by, commemorative and memorial practises. From an examination of biographical writing, memorial exhibitions, and other acts of remembrance, I endeavour to explore “how memory in the guise of its representations changes over time, over space and between different people” (Withers 2004). In tracing what is, in Olick’s terminology, the “commemorative trajectory” of Bruce, I hope to make clear that the way in which Bruce has been remembered, the role he has occupied in popular memory, has not only varied with time and across space, but has also been purposely modified in order to serve particular agenda (Olick 1998, 385). This thesis is not about the history of Antarctic exploration, or about the conduct of Victorian and Edwardian science per se, but is, rather, an investigation of ‘situatedness’. From the spatial and temporal particularity of Bruce’s polar science, through the locally inscribed production, dissemination, and reception of that work, to the socially and geographically located nature of Bruce’s commemoration, this study is inspired by recent work