Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T02:00:54.353Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

From explorer to expert: Sir William Martin Conway's ‘delightful sense of something accomplished’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2013

Mary Katherine Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of History and Religious Studies, University of Tromsø, 9037 Tromsø, Norway (mary.jones@uit.no)

Abstract

In 1896, Sir William Martin Conway led an expedition to the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, then a terra nullius. It was the first expedition to cross the interior of the main island, Spitsbergen. Was Conway an ‘expert’ explorer or an enthusiastic amateur, or something in-between? This article examines Conway's comparisons of Arctic versus Alpine in his expedition narrative, The first crossing of Spitsbergen, and his portrayal of expedition members’ expertise and shortcomings. Distinctions between Arctic explorers, travellers and tourists at that time are assessed, as is Conway's occasional tendency to highlight the polar aspects of his homeland while perceiving the island of Spitsbergen in a notably English light. Conway's expert status developed with the subsequent publication of journal articles and No man's land, the first history of Svalbard. In the latter, his simplicity of style and form, and the pronounced British bias of the main narrative, contrast with the scholarly breadth and focus of the final reference sections, which acted as a catalyst for subsequent international bibliographical and cartographical compilations relating to the region.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arlov, T.B. 2003. Svalbards historie [Svalbard's history] (2nd edn). Trondheim: Tapir Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Barrington, D. 1775. The probability of reaching the North Pole discussed. London: C. Heydinger.Google Scholar
Blackwood, F.T.H.T. 1857. Letters from high latitudes: being some account of a voyage in the schooner yacht ‘Foam’ . . . to Iceland, Jan Mayen, and Spitzbergen, in 1856. London: John Murray.Google Scholar
Blakeney, T.S. 1974. The Alpine Journal and its editors. The Alpine Journal 79 (323): 166173.Google Scholar
Capelotti, P.J. 2012. Extreme archaeological sites and their tourism: a conceptual model from historic American polar expeditions in Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Northeast Greenland. Polar Journal 2 (2): 236255.Google Scholar
Clutterbuck, W.J. 1890. The skipper in Arctic seas. London: Longmans, Green.Google Scholar
Conway, W.M. 1897a. The first crossing of Spitsbergen. The Geographical Journal 9 (4): 353368.Google Scholar
Conway, W.M. 1897b. The first crossing of Spitsbergen. Being an account of an inland journey of exploration and survey, with descriptions of several mountain ascents, of boat expeditions in Ice Fjord, of a voyage to North–East–Land, the Seven Islands, down Hinloopen Strait, nearly to Wiches Land, and into most of the fjords of Spitsbergen, and of an almost complete circumnavigation of the main island. London: J.M. Dent and Co.Google Scholar
Conway, M. 1898. With ski and sledge over Arctic glaciers. London: J. M. Dent and Co.Google Scholar
Conway, M. 1900a. Hudson's voyage to Spitsbergen in 1607. The Geographical Journal 15 (2): 121130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, M. 1900b. Some unpublished Spitsbergen MSS. The Geographical Journal 15 (6): 628636.Google Scholar
Conway, M. 1901. Joris Carolus, discoverer of Edge Island. A forgotten Arctic explorer. The Geographical Journal 17 (6): 623632.Google Scholar
Conway, M. 1903a. How Spitsbergen was discovered. The Geographical Journal 21 (2): 142150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conway, M. 1903b. The cartography of Spitsbergen. The Geographical Journal 21 (6): 636644.Google Scholar
Conway, M. 1906. No man's land. A history of Spitsbergen from its discovery in 1596 to the beginning of the scientific exploration of the country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Conway, M. 1919. The political status of Spitsbergen. The Geographical Journal 53 (2): 8396.Google Scholar
Conway, M. 1920. Mountain memories. A pilgrimage of romance. London: Cassell and Company, Ltd.Google Scholar
Conway, W.M. 1822–1950. Baron Conway of Allington.1822–1950. Letters and papers [including diaries]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives GBR/0012/MS Add.7676.Google Scholar
De Geer, G. 1909. Swedish Spitzbergen maps until the end of 1908. Ymer 29/1: 7889.Google Scholar
Hoel, A. 1919. Nordmændenes videnskapelige arbeider paa Spitsbergen 1827–1918 [A brief account of Norwegian scientific explorations in Spitsbergen 1827–1918]. Kristiania: Aschehoug (proof copies in Norwegian and English, never published). Tromsø: Norwegian Polar Institute Library SM-5052 and SM-5033.Google Scholar
Holland, C. 1994. Arctic exploration and development c. 500 b.c. to 1915. New York, London: Garland Publishing, Inc.Google Scholar
Hulth, J.M. 1909. Swedish Spitzbergen bibliography. Ymer 29/1: 2377.Google Scholar
Hyne, C.J.C. 1898. Through Arctic Lapland. London: A. and C. Black.Google Scholar
Jerome, J.K. 1889. Three men in a boat: to say nothing of the dog. Bristol: J.W. Arrowsmith.Google Scholar
Jones, M. 2004. Perceptions of Northern Norway and Spitsbergen in European travel literature, c. 1900. In: Tjelmeland, H. and Zachariassen, K. (editors). Inn i riket: Svalbard, Nord–Norge og Norge [Into the realm: Svalbard, Northern Norway and Norway]. Tromsø: Universitetet i Tromsø, Institutt for historie (Speculum boreale 5): 3950.Google Scholar
Kane, E.K. 1856. Arctic explorations: the second Grinnell expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, 1853, '54, '55. Philadelphia: Childs and Peterson.Google Scholar
Kish, G. 1973. North–east passage: Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, his life and times. Amsterdam: Nico Israel.Google Scholar
Kjellman, F.R. 1875. Svenska polarexpeditionen år 1872–1873 under ledning af A.E. Nordenskiöld [The Swedish polar expedition 1872–1873 under the leadership of A.E. Nordenskiöld]. Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt and Söner.Google Scholar
Lees, J. A. and Clutterbuck, W. J.. 1882. Three in Norway / by two of them. London: Longmans, Green, and Co.Google Scholar
Leslie, A. 1879. The Arctic voyages of A.E. Nordenskiöld. 1858–1879. London: Macmillan and Co.Google Scholar
Mathisen, T. 1954. Svalbard in international politics 1871–1925: the solution of a unique international problem. Oslo: Brøgger (Norsk Polarinstitutt. Skrifter 101).Google Scholar
Nathorst, A.G. 1897. W. Martin Conway. The first crossing of Spitsbergen book review. Ymer 17/3: 249252.Google Scholar
Nathorst, A.G. 1906. Svenskarnes arbeten på Spetsbergen (1758; 1837; 1858–1902).[Swedish work on Spitsbergen (1758; 1837; 1858–1902)]. Nordisk tidskrift för vetenskap, konst och industri 1906: 461477.Google Scholar
Nathorst, A.G. 1909. Historical sketch. Ymer 29/1: 422.Google Scholar
Norwegian Polar Institute. 2003. The place names of Svalbard. Tromsø: Norwegian Polar Institute (Rapportserie 122).Google Scholar
Norwegian Polar Institute. 2013. Interaktive kart. Svalbard (topografi) [Interactive maps. Svalbard (topography)]. URL: http://www.npolar.no/no/tjenester/kart/interaktive/ (accessed 12 July 2013).Google Scholar
Østreng, W. 1974. Økonomi og politisk suverenitet: interessespillet om Svalbards politiske status [Economic and political sovereignty: the play of interests concerning Svalbard's political status]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget (New territories in international politics series. Studies from the Fridtjof Nansen foundation at Polhøgda 2).Google Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary. 2004. CD–ROM version 3.1. 2004. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rosengren, K.E. 1990. Who carries the field? Communication between literary scholars and critics. In: Borgman, C.L. (editor). Scholarly communication and bibliometrics. Newbury Park: Sage Publications: 107128.Google Scholar
Scoresby, W. 1820. An account of the Arctic regions: with a history and description of the northern whale–fishery. Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co.Google Scholar
Shidlovskiy, A.F. 1912. Shpitsbergen v russkoy istorii i literature: kratkiy istoricheskiy ocherk russkikh plavaniy i promyslov na Shpitsbergene i podrobnyy ukazatel literatury i arkhivnykh del, otnosyashchikhsya k etim voprosam [Spitsbergen in Russian history and literature: a brief historical review of Russian sea voyages and trade on Spitsbergen, and a detailed list of references and archive collections concerning these issues]. St. Petersburg: Tipografiya morskogo ministerstva.Google Scholar
Singh, E.C. 1980. The Spitsbergen (Svalbard) question: United States foreign policy, 1907–1935. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Stone, I. R. 1986. Profile: Aubyn Trevor–Battye. Polar Record 23 (143): 177181.Google Scholar
Stone, I.R. 2004. Gentlemen travellers in the north: Cutcliffe Hyne's Through Arctic Lapland, 1898. Polar Record 40 (214): 213220.Google Scholar
Wegener, G. 1898. Conway, Sir William Martin. The first crossing of Spitsbergen book review. Dr. A. Petermanns Mitteilungen aus Justus Perthes’ geographischer Anstalt 44 Litteratur–Bericht für 1898: 144.Google Scholar
Wieder, F.C. 1919. The Dutch discovery and mapping of Spitsbergen (1596–1829). Amsterdam: Netherland Ministry of Foreign Affairs and The Royal Dutch Geographic Society.Google Scholar
Wråkberg, U. 1999. Vetenskapens vikingatåg: perspektiv på svensk polarforskning 1860–1930 [The Vikings’ scientific siege: perspectives on Swedish polar research 1860–1930]. Stockholm: Kungl. Vetenskapsakademien.Google Scholar