The Material Culture of Polar Exploration

我们对极地地区的探险家和科学家的迷恋，是从维多利亚时代到今天的一代又一代英国人所共有的。在对波兰神秘的持久兴趣的故事背后，是对探险家试图留下印记的巧妙方式的钦佩。对于每一代人来说，新的旅行技术为到达极地带来了新的前景；即使在斯科特和阿蒙森史诗般的航行之后，探险家们也发明了新的、具有挑战性的到达极地的方法，保持了极地探索的壮举，同时改变了挑战的实现方式。斯科特极地研究所正在发起一项倡议，将两百年来极地探索的文物公之于众。斯科特、阿蒙森和沙克尔顿的探险揭示了技术对旅行的重要性。关键的决定--是带着狗还是小马穿越冰冻大陆--当然是众所周知的，但使用动物只是整个极地技术故事中的一个元素。雪橇、电动拖拉机和高性能滑雪板被后来的探险家采用，向他们的前辈学习。保护探险者的身体免受恶劣环境的伤害也成为创新的重点。过去探险中的许多衣服看起来都不够暖和，不足以让我们免受英国寒冷的冬天的侵袭。两个研讨会--《旅行技术》和《野外站》--将讨论许多这些改变了极地世界的未经检验的技术。这些研讨会将汇集来自博物馆、大学和现代探险家本身的顶尖专家，讨论这些曾经是极地创新引擎的文物的历史和文化意义。雪地护目镜、帽子、手套、滑雪板、捆绑和许多其他物品将在博物馆和网上向公众开放。这些新技术是国产独创性和创造性的产物，还是更大的国际思想交流的一部分？英国探险家有没有改进和分享在其他国家尝试过的方法？这些发明在多大程度上是从北极土著人民那里获得的，并在多大程度上被改编用于探险？通过追踪这些联系，我们将能够比较本土和欧洲文化之间的技术共享和创新路径。我们将揭示探险家如何以及为什么将这些文物带回家而对他们的健康造成身体风险的故事。他们的路标是为了唤起他们极地旅行中那些只有他们自己知道的可怕时刻吗？他们是不是希望在国家博物馆的显眼位置能给这些极地旅行者带来真正的认可呢？当他们决定将哪些文物留在极地时，他们觉得有什么义务来保护他们所知道的极地环境？这些研讨会上的讨论和辩论将为斯科特极地研究所(SPRI)的研究人员提供关于2007年极地技术的工作，以纪念第一个国际极年125年后第四个国际极年(IPY)的开始。部分展览将为与加拿大、美国、瑞典和芬兰合作的国际展览做出贡献，该展览将在这些领先的IPY国家巡回演出。

Our fascination with the explorers and scientists of the polar regions is one shared in Britain by successive generations from the Victorians to the present day. Behind the story of an enduring interest in the mysteries of the Poles, lies an admiration for the ingenious ways in which explorers sought to make their mark. For each genration, new technologies of travel held out new prospects reaching the Poles; even after the epic voyages of Scott and Amundsen, explorers invented new, challenging ways to reach the Pole, keeping the feat of polar exploration alive, while transforming the way that the challenges were accomplished.The Scott Polar Research Institute is launching an initiative to make publicly accessible artefacts from two centuries of polar exploration. The expeditions of Scott, Amundsen and Shackleton brought to light the importance of technologies to travel. Key decisions - whether to cross the Frozen continent with dogs or ponies - are of course well known, but the use of animals is only one element in the full story of polar technologies. Sleds, motorised tractors, and high performance skis were adopted by later explorers learning from their predecessors. Protecting the explorer's body from the cruelties of the environment also became a focus for innovation. Much of the clothing of past expeditions look scarcely warm enough to protect us from a cold British winter's day.Two workshops - 'Technologies of Travel' and 'Field Stations' will ocnsider many of these unexamined technologies that transformed the polar world. The workshops will bring together leading experts from the world of museums, universities - and modern-day explorers themselves - to discuss the history and the cultural meaning of these relics that were once the engine of polar innovation. Snow goggles, hats, gloves, skis, bindings, and many other objects will be made available for viewing by the public at the museum and online.Were these new technologies the product of home-made ingenuity and invention, or were they part of a larger international circulation of ideas? Did British explorers improve upon and share methods tried in other countries? To what extent were these inventions acquired from the indigenous peoples of the Arctic and adapted for the purposes of expeditions? By tracing these links, we will be able to compare the paths of technology sharing and innovation between indigenous and European cultures.We will uncover the stories of how and why explorers incurred the physical risk to their wellbeing by bringing home these artefacts. Were they signposts to conjure up those terrible moments in their polar travels known to them alone? Were they hoping that a prominent place in a national museum would give the real recognition earned by these polar travelling companions? And when they decided which artefacts to leave in the polar regions, what obligations did they feel to preserving the polar environment as they knew it?Disussion and debate at these workshops will inform the work of researchers based at Scott Polar Reserach Institute (SPRI) on polar technologies in 2007 to mark the start of the Fourth International Polar Year (IPY), 125 years after the First International Polar Year. Parts of the exhibition will contribute to a collaborative international exhibition with Canada, the USA, Sweden, and Finland, that will tour these leading IPY nations.