Description: A map of the North Polar Region with stars indicating advances made toward the pole from 1594 to 1902. Map was created before the North Pole was reached by Peary in 1909. Shows the site of the sinking of the Jeanette in 1881.̉North Polar Expeditions, expeditions of explorations in the regions about the North Pole. The object of the earliest expeditions to the Arctic regions was to discover a shorter commercial maritime route to China and India. The first expeditions for the discovery of the northeast passage was that of Sir Hugh Willoughby in 1553. The search was actively continued by Burroughs (1556), Barentz (1594-96), Hudson, and Behring (1741). These expeditions rendered good service to geography, by making accurate surveys of Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla and Waygatz; but it was in 1878 that the Swedish explorer, Nordenskjöld, discovered the northeast passage. —Vaughn,1906
Source: L. Brent Vaughn, Hill's Practical Reference Library of General Knowledge Volume III (New York, NY: Dixon, Hanson & Company, 1906)
Map Credit: Courtesy the private collection of Roy Winkelman |
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