Archive for Visual Materials One hundred years ago this winter,
two polar expeditions disembarked on the northern edges of the
Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica with the goal of reaching the South
Pole. One party, led by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen,
reached 90º S on 14 December 1911. The second party, led by
British officer Robert Falcon Scott, arrived a month later on 17
January 1912. Amundsen and his men returned to announce their
victory, while Scott and his party of four men died on the trek
back, succumbing to starvation and cold. The meaning of
Antarctic exploration has been cast in the forge of the Scott-
Amundsen race ever since. There are good reasons for this. The
event was significant geographically: representing the attempt
to erase the last, substantive terra incognita from the modern
world. It was also important politically: highlighting the
competition between different Western powers on the eve of the
Great War. For historians, it offered a way to demarcate the
eras of exploration: signaling t