Before the Heroes Came - Antarctica in the 1890s

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  • Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
  • Catalogue: 176867
  • Size: 15.5x23cm
Before the Heroes Came - Antarctica in the 1890s is an appreciation of the pioneering ventures in the far south before the arrival of the better known names associated with the region. The book gives a revitalised look at the romanticism, vanity, competition and entirely human qualities of the late nineteenth century visitors that provided a slate on which the official and popular attitudes coalesced, later resulting in the race to the pole.

Although the Antarctic ice pack and some offshore islands had been sighted and even landed upon as early as the 1820s, it was not until an Anglo-Norwegian, Carsten F. Borchgrevink, went ashore in 1895 that a human being set foot on the Antarctic continent.