Chapter 2. The historical geography of an archipelago of polar explorers

P.J Capelotti

doi:10.7557/5.3579

Abstract

An outline of the rationale for a workshop, held in Oslo, Norway, from 12-13 May 2015, to discuss the historic place names of the High Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land. The islands contain hundreds of place names that amount to a virtual catalog of polar exploration and explorers of the mid- to late-19th Century. As an example, three American expeditions spent seven years there between 1898-1905, in failed attempts to try to reach the geographic North Pole. However, in the process, they left behind a record of the American Gilded Age that survived even 70 years of Soviet Communism.

Highlights

An outline of the rationale for a workshop, held in Oslo, Norway, from 12-13 May 2015, to discuss the historic place names of the High Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land
Over two weeks of breaking through the polar ice cap, Magnus and I had a lot of time on the bridge of the ship to look at the charts of the islands and begin to ask questions about the origins of the place names there, since so many of them were clearly related to the history of polar exploration
At some point we conceived of the idea of a ‘place names of Franz Josef Land’ and had the audacity to think might rival that essential work of polar toponymy, Place Names of Svalbard, produced in several editions here in Norway by the Norsk Polarinstitutt

Summary

Introduction

An outline of the rationale for a workshop, held in Oslo, Norway, from 12-13 May 2015, to discuss the historic place names of the High Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land. Franz Josef Land, historic place names, historical geography, polar exploration, Oslo NSF workshop

Results

Conclusion