Extreme Environments and the Production of Scientific Knowledge: The History of Science in Antarctica

• Main Author: McCahey, Daniella
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2018
• Subjects: History; Science history; World history; Antarctica; Falkland Islands Dependencies; International Geophysical Year; Polar History; Ross Dependency; Science and Technology Studies; Antarctic; Weddell Sea; New Zealand; Weddell; Scott Base; Christchurch; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/39t93786

Situating Antarctica within the greater context of the global history of science is at the core of my dissertation. Drawing from archives in New Zealand (Christchurch and Wellington) and the United Kingdom (London and Cambridge), my dissertation examines the history of modern Antarctic science in the late 1950s-early 1960s. Comprised of six chapters, my dissertation begins by contextualizing Antarctic science within both the historic British interest in the region and the organization of the International Geophysical Year (1957-58). The second chapter argues that the varying ways that Antarctic expeditions were funded in New Zealand and the United Kingdom reflect profoundly different visions for the future of Antarctica; one which sought to domesticate the continent and another imperial vision which viewed it as a site for practicing nationalistic, prestige granting science. Chapter Three shows that that the geographical sites of the British base at Halley Bay and New Zealand’s Scott Base, neither of which were ideal for proposed research at the respective sites, reveal clashes between the sometimes conflicting priorities of scientists and those making decisions for the bases. Chapter Four examines how science workers used behavioral and technological adaptations to do research for which their instruments had not been specifically designed. The fifth chapter studies a specific set of geological specimens gathered near the Weddell Sea, arguing that the gathering, study, and final resting place of these specimens reveal not only the roles of masculinity and British post-colonial insecurities within the scientific community, but also played an important role in the ongoing continental drift debate. The sixth chapter uses the IGY Expedition to South Georgia to explore the professionalization of glaciological science in the 1950s as well as the importance of social networks to the production of scientific knowledge.