1876 Bauman Map of the North Pole

Adrift on an Arctic ice floe.

This is a 1876 William Bauman map of the North Polar region, highlighting over 400 years of Arctic Exploration. The map is notable for its illustration of the ill-fated Polaris Expedition - one of the first American attempts to reach the North Pole.

A Closer Look

Centered over the North Pole, the world is depicted to at least 60° N latitude and lower in some places. Countries are labeled, but no national boundaries are marked. Very little inland detail is present; only a handful of cities are named, though lakes and rivers are illustrated in Canada and Siberia.

Tracing the History of Arctic Exploration

Red overprinting notes expeditions by their leaders' names, including Barents, Hudson, and Parry, and provides the years of their journeys. Dashed lines in North America trace Sir John Franklin's expeditions conducted between 1819 and 1826 - he disappeared on his final voyage in 1845. (Several subsequent teams, including the Richardson and Rae Expedition in 1848, went out in search of Franklin, but never learned of his fate.) Siberian coastlines, as determined by Nordenskiold in the late 1870s, also appear in red and are significantly different than the accepted coastlines printed here in black.

The Polaris Expedition

A dashed line through the Baffin Bay and the Davis Strait to Newfoundland that reads 'Track of Ice Floe Party of U.S. Polaris from October 14th, 1872 to April 30th, 1873'. This refers to events associated with the disastrous Polaris Expedition. Commanded by Charles Francis Hall - who led several prior expeditions to find the lost Franklin - the Polaris left New York in June 1871. The expedition was undermined by the discontented German scientists Emil Bessels and Frederick Meyer, its chief scientist and meteorologist, respectively. After returning from a scouting expedition in October, Hall suddenly fell ill and died, but on his deathbed, he accused Bessels of poisoning him. The Polaris and its crew, fractured and leaderless, endured an icebound Arctic winter. With the Spring thaw, they made a half-hearted attempt at the North Pole, which was quickly abandoned. On the return journey, the Polaris lodged itself on an iceburg. Hoping to lighten the ship, stores and supplies were thrown overboard. The lightened Polaris floated free, but a day later it ran aground on Etah due to a lack of coal. This diminished crew endured another winter in the Arctic, which they survived only with the help of the Etah Inuit. Regarding the 'Ice Floe Party'. Part of Polaris did not winter at Etah. On the night when the Polaris hit the iceberg, some men camped on the ice off the ship. During the night, the ice broke apart, and when they awoke, they found themselves 10 miles distant and were unable to get the ship's attention. They spent the next six months drifting over 1,800 miles on an ice floe before being rescued off Newfoundland by a whaler. Their survival is nothing short of a miracle.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by William Bauman and published by The Graphic Company in 1876.

Condition

Very good. Exhibits slight offsetting. Dissected and mounted on linen. Old linen generally stable but reinforced in places.

References

OCLC 11600416.