Laura Kissel, polar archivist for the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program at The Ohio State University, announced on Mar. 18 that her final exhibition, “Polar Expressions: Finding Beauty in the Coldest Regions on Earth,” is now open in Thompson Library’s gallery space and will run through Aug. 2.
The exhibition highlights the artistic side of polar exploration, featuring materials from the Polar Archives that date back to the 1890s. Kissel said she wanted to showcase items with artistic qualities before her retirement later this year. “Exhibitions are hard work,” she said. “I started to think about all the collection materials that I wanted to show and as I made this list, I thought, ‘What is my theme?’ It took me months of brainstorming. And all of a sudden, I realized everything that I wanted to show had some kind of artistic quality.”
The Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center was founded in 1960 as the Institute of Polar Studies and focuses on research excellence and public engagement in polar and climate studies at Ohio State. The Polar Archives is a collaborative program between University Libraries and the Byrd Center, holding hundreds of collections including cornerstone papers from Admiral Richard E. Byrd, Sir George Hubert Wilkins, and The Frederick A. Cook Society.
Kissel explained that scholars from around the world visit Columbus to study these unique archival materials. “Archives by their nature have unique materials,” she said. “If you want to research Richard Byrd, can you do it without coming here? Yes, you can. But if you’re trying to explore something new, if you want to look at original materials, that’s where we come into play.”
The exhibition includes diaries, letters, photographs, drawings—such as pastel works by expedition artist David Abbey Paige—and even a painted portrait of Byrd’s dog Igloo. There are also stone and ivory figurines carved by Cree and Inuit artists displayed for wide viewing for the first time outside the Byrd Center.
Kissel discussed how explorers like Byrd became public figures comparable to John Glenn in their era: “He would have been like John Glenn, in terms of his heroic status,” she said.
Exploration controversies are also addressed in the exhibit; both Frederick Cook and Robert Peary claimed to be first at the North Pole but neither claim is certain today due to limited documentation available at that time.
Questions about what should be preserved drive archival work forward according to Kissel: “All of the work that the scientists at the Byrd Center are doing now is important and interesting today. And it’s gratifying to know that the documentation of that work will end up in our archival collections, accessible to scholars and researchers far into the future.”
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