Maggs Bros.

This copy with the library stamp of the International Geophysical Year Wilkes Station in Antarctica. Also with the ownership inscription of glaciologist John Molholm, who was on the Wilkes Station, dated 1958.

The Wilkes Station was one of seven US research bases established on the Antarctic continent for the International Geophysical Year, a global initiative aimed at fostering collaboration between scientists of different nationalities. It housed twenty-four occupants, both researchers and naval personnel, for a stay of eighteen months as part of a mission known as Operation Deep Freeze II. Molholm was one of three American glaciologists studying the physical properties of ice from the Wilkes Station. They did this is part by digging deep snow pits and establishing a sub-base on the polar ice cap, and drilling ice cores for analysis.

First published in Edinburgh in 1875, this attractive gift book, providing a well illustrated and comprehensive overview of Arctic exploration in a decorative binding, was widely re-issued by different publishers likely just with cancel title-pages. It is no wonder therefore that the copy which ended up at the Wilkes Station would have come from a publisher exporting to the Melbourne and Sydney market.

The appeal of an expedition copy is often in its signs of use - that this book lacks the portrait of Sir John Franklin, somewhat roughly excised, does pose the tantalising possibility that it was torn out by a resident of the station in situ, perhaps to decorate their quarters. From photographs of the base, it’s clear that the personnel were well supplied with reading material, and one can imagine that the cautionary tale of John Franklin’s lost men would have struck a chord with those experiencing an Antarctic winter one hundred years later.