Exhibition Note: Lines in the Ice at the British Library
During the winter of 2014-15 the British Library ran a medium-sized exhibition in its Entrance Hall Gallery, Lines in the Ice: Seeking the Northwest Passage. Fortuitously benefiting from news in the summer of 2014 about the location of HMS Erebus, one of the ships from the fateful expedition of Sir...
| Published in: | Scientia Canadensis |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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CSTHA/AHSTC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1036043ar https://doi.org/10.7202/1036043ar |
| Summary: | During the winter of 2014-15 the British Library ran a medium-sized exhibition in its Entrance Hall Gallery, Lines in the Ice: Seeking the Northwest Passage. Fortuitously benefiting from news in the summer of 2014 about the location of HMS Erebus, one of the ships from the fateful expedition of Sir John Franklin, the exhibition sought to take a long view of the history of polar exploration, particularly in the Canadian Arctic. In so doing, the aim of the exhibition was to explore the circumstances which have maintained European and North American interest in the Arctic, from trade to resources and geopolitics. The exhibition sought to ask how this has developed and what effect it has had on the societies of the explorers and the indigenous peoples of the Arctic. Within this historical narrative, science, innovation and technology played an important role. This note considers how the exhibition developed our understanding of the historic and contemporary significance of science and its practice in the Arctic. Durant l’hiver de 2014-15, la British Library a organisé une exposition intitulée Lines in the Ice : Seeking the Nothwest Passage. Bénéficiant de nouvelles récentes concernant l’emplacement du HMS Erebus, un des navires de l’expédition fatidique de Sir John Franklin, l’exposition cherchait à adopter une vision à long terme de l’histoire polaire, en particulier de l’exploration de l’Arctique canadien. Ce faisant, le but de l’exposition était d’explorer les circonstances qui ont maintenu l’intérêt européen et nord-américain pour l’Arctique, du commerce aux ressources naturelles, en passant par la géopolitique. L’exposition voulait montrer comment cet intérêt s’était développé et quel effet cela avait eu sur les sociétés des explorateurs et des peuples autochtones de l’Arctique. Dans ce récit historique, la science, la technologie et l’innovation jouaient un rôle important. Par conséquent, le présent article examine la manière dont cette exposition a développé notre compréhension de l’importance historique et contemporaine de la science et de sa pratique dans l’Arctique. |
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