Arctic exploration has always been a fascination in American culture. The Canadian poet F.R. Scott once wrote about the Arctic, “Hidden in wonder and snow, or sudden with summer, this land stares at the sun in a huge silence, endlessly repeating something we cannot hear. Inarticulate, arctic, not written on by history, empty as paper, it leans away from the world with songs in its lakes, older than love, and lost in the miles.”
The current exhibit on the second floor of the Portland Museum of Art, “The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration in American Culture,” portrays the story of Arctic exploration during its peak years from 1850 to 1910.
During the late 1800’s this so-called “Arctic fever” swept across America, with more than a dozen expeditions to the Arctic, to discover uncharted lands, rescue missing explorers, find a Northwest Passage, or stand at the North Pole.
This Arctic fever wasn’t felt by the explorers alone, but by the entire nation who shared in the excitement through the media and publications.
Michael Robinson, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Hartford wrote about this Arctic fever in the museum brochure about the exhibit.
Robinson wrote, “Arctic voyages thrilled- and sometimes galled- readers, who read about them in personal narratives, newspapers, school geographies, family atlases, and dime novels. Millions paid admission to see explorers narrate their journeys (with noisy retinues of Eskimos and dogs) at public lectures, World’s Fairs, museums, and massive traveling polar panoramas.”
The exhibit, drawn from the collection of the Osher Map Library at USM in Portland, boasts an eclectic collection of engravings, newspaper and magazine clippings, photographs, books, and maps.
The black and white engravings depict explorers in Arctic landscapes, trying to survive in the harsh and treacherous climate. One incredibly detailed engraving entitled “Sealers Crushed by Icebergs” depicts a harrowing scene of a ship and men getting run down by a huge iceberg.
“The Coldest Crucible” also features rare Renaissance maps of the Arctic region and world, many of which are fascinatingly different than the sorts of maps we see today. One map entitled “Typus Orbis Terrarium (Map of the World) is a hand-colored wood engraved world map from 1612, which shows what they thought they world looked like.
Another part of the exhibit displays real clippings from publications such as “Scientific American” to reveal what people who lived during this time were reading about Arctic explorations.
There are also some actual photographs in the exhibit; photos and memorabilia from Maine residents Robert and Josephine Peary, a famous Arctic couple, are also on display.
We can no longer read about Arctic explorations in the newspapers on a daily basis, but through this exhibit we can relive this period of American history when Arctic exploration was at the forefront of American thought and consciousness.