Giles Land—a mystery for S.A. Andrée and other early Arctic explorers
After the initial discovery of Giles Land (Kvitøya, Svalbard) by Cornelis Giles in 1707, it was most likely never seen by anyone again until 1876. During this lengthy period, Giles Land evolved into an enigma as various explorers and cartographers came to very different conclusions about its probabl...
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Norwegian Polar Institute
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ftjpolarres:oai:journals.openacademia.net:article/3433 2024-09-09T19:23:10+00:00 Giles Land—a mystery for S.A. Andrée and other early Arctic explorers Lantz, Björn 2019-07-01 application/pdf text/html application/epub+zip application/xml https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433 https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v38.3433 eng eng Norwegian Polar Institute https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9304 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9353 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9349 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9350 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9352 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433 doi:10.33265/polar.v38.3433 Polar Research; Vol 38 (2019) 1751-8369 Kvitøya Andrée expedition Arctic exploration Svalbard maps info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2019 ftjpolarres https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v38.3433 2024-06-20T23:33:17Z After the initial discovery of Giles Land (Kvitøya, Svalbard) by Cornelis Giles in 1707, it was most likely never seen by anyone again until 1876. During this lengthy period, Giles Land evolved into an enigma as various explorers and cartographers came to very different conclusions about its probable location, character or even existence. In 1897, when the engineer Salomon August Andrée tried to return over the ice after his failed attempt to reach the North Pole in a balloon, he passed through an area approximately 160 km north of Kvitøya where Giles Land was indicated on his map. Andrée searched for it, but there was no land in sight. The main reason why Giles Land was erroneously positioned too far north was a conjecture by a German cartographer August Petermann in 1872. While there was some distrust of Petermann’s conjecture at the time, many also believed it. The erroneous understanding that Giles Land was located far north of Kvitøya was only finally dismissed in the 1930s. This article examines how this misunderstanding regarding the identity and location of Giles Land could arise and become entrenched. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Kvitøya North Pole Polar Research Svalbard Polar Research Andrée ENVELOPE(-61.500,-61.500,-64.516,-64.516) Arctic Giles ENVELOPE(-137.617,-137.617,-75.150,-75.150) North Pole Svalbard Polar Research 38 0 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Polar Research |
op_collection_id |
ftjpolarres |
language |
English |
topic |
Kvitøya Andrée expedition Arctic exploration Svalbard maps |
spellingShingle |
Kvitøya Andrée expedition Arctic exploration Svalbard maps Lantz, Björn Giles Land—a mystery for S.A. Andrée and other early Arctic explorers |
topic_facet |
Kvitøya Andrée expedition Arctic exploration Svalbard maps |
description |
After the initial discovery of Giles Land (Kvitøya, Svalbard) by Cornelis Giles in 1707, it was most likely never seen by anyone again until 1876. During this lengthy period, Giles Land evolved into an enigma as various explorers and cartographers came to very different conclusions about its probable location, character or even existence. In 1897, when the engineer Salomon August Andrée tried to return over the ice after his failed attempt to reach the North Pole in a balloon, he passed through an area approximately 160 km north of Kvitøya where Giles Land was indicated on his map. Andrée searched for it, but there was no land in sight. The main reason why Giles Land was erroneously positioned too far north was a conjecture by a German cartographer August Petermann in 1872. While there was some distrust of Petermann’s conjecture at the time, many also believed it. The erroneous understanding that Giles Land was located far north of Kvitøya was only finally dismissed in the 1930s. This article examines how this misunderstanding regarding the identity and location of Giles Land could arise and become entrenched. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lantz, Björn |
author_facet |
Lantz, Björn |
author_sort |
Lantz, Björn |
title |
Giles Land—a mystery for S.A. Andrée and other early Arctic explorers |
title_short |
Giles Land—a mystery for S.A. Andrée and other early Arctic explorers |
title_full |
Giles Land—a mystery for S.A. Andrée and other early Arctic explorers |
title_fullStr |
Giles Land—a mystery for S.A. Andrée and other early Arctic explorers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Giles Land—a mystery for S.A. Andrée and other early Arctic explorers |
title_sort |
giles land—a mystery for s.a. andrée and other early arctic explorers |
publisher |
Norwegian Polar Institute |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433 https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v38.3433 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-61.500,-61.500,-64.516,-64.516) ENVELOPE(-137.617,-137.617,-75.150,-75.150) |
geographic |
Andrée Arctic Giles North Pole Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Andrée Arctic Giles North Pole Svalbard |
genre |
Arctic Kvitøya North Pole Polar Research Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Kvitøya North Pole Polar Research Svalbard |
op_source |
Polar Research; Vol 38 (2019) 1751-8369 |
op_relation |
https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9304 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9353 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9349 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9350 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433/9352 https://polarresearch.net/index.php/polar/article/view/3433 doi:10.33265/polar.v38.3433 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.33265/polar.v38.3433 |
container_title |
Polar Research |
container_volume |
38 |
container_issue |
0 |
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1809763526375374848 |