PRINT RESOURCES

 

The Dogs of Ease Base: 1939-41, Joan Bryner, 2017,  52 pages

Joan became interested in the dogs of the USAS expedition when learning that her friend and neighbor, Natalie Jubin Norris, then of Lake Placid, N.Y., had sold a Malamute called Teton, together with her four offspring, to the U.S. government in 1939.  Wondering what happened to those dogs, Ms. Bryner began her research about the canines who served in the Antarctic.  This narrative is the result of that investigation.

 

Americans in Antarctica:  1775-1948,  Kenneth J. Bertrand, American Geographical Society,

New York , 1971, 554 pages.

This extensive survey of American involvement in Antarctica through 1948, provides a detailed discussion of the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition.  Excellent bibliography.

 

Antarctica:  An Encyclopedia, John Stewart, 2nd edition,  two volumes, total of 1771 triple-columned pages,  published:   September 1, 2011.

The book may be ordered from:  Gayle Winston, River House, Grassy Creek, NC

(336) 982-2109 or riverhouse@skybest.com 

 

Stewart provides the following information:

The new edition of the Antarctic encyclopedia contains between 30,000 and 60,000 references.

Every geographic feature in Antarctica is listed and described. In most cases the Antarctic gazetteers from various countries have been used merely as starting points, and the information contained therein has been expanded upon and, where necessary, corrected, and, in many cases, translated into English for the first time. Thousands of cross-references.

 

One of the great differences between this edition and the 1990 edition is the biographies - thousands of them - biographies of pretty much everyone who was in Antarctica before WWII - in most cases a good chunky paragraph - as well as hundreds of bios on post WWII Antarcticans.

 

The U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition has 4306 words.  It outlines, in considerable detail, the expedition on a chronological basis, like a diary.  This chronology is preceded by an overview of the expedition, its background, mission, special equipment, and all the personnel (all the personnel have their own entries), and concludes with a summary of the results.

 

The same is true of Byrd I and Byrd II, and, indeed, of all the expeditions in the book.  Byrd I has 5455 words and Byrd II has 4733.

 

All pre-1962 Fids have been interviewed, where possible, and several of the post 1962 BAS lads as well. There is a monstrous alphabetical check list of all the Fids who wintered-over. All the FIDS bases have been "biographized" in enormous detail.

 

Much expanded expedition listings - many are quite huge

 

There is a huge, very detailed chronological list of Expeditions (under E)

 

Bios on the ships, the bases, the refugios, the camps. Some of the entries are enormous. Scientific entries are included.

 

There are other interesting entries - Blacks in Antarctica, Women in Antarctica, Eskimos in Antarctica, a huge entry on Whaling, Deaths in Antarctica, the South Pole.

 

Masses of material simply not available anywhere else.

 

 Antarctic Night, Jack Bursey, Rand McNally and Company, New York , 1957, 256 pages.

In his book, Jack Bursey shares his experiences on the first Byrd expedition, the United States Antarctic Service Expedition and Operation Deep Freeze. 

 

East Base:  Historic Monument, Stonington Island/Antarctic Peninsula, Catherine Holder Spude and Robert L. Spude, U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, 1993, 168 pages.

After its designation as a protected historic site in 1989, the National Park Service conducted a survey of East Base and its artifacts.  The book contains photographs and lists of items abandoned by the USASE personnel, as well as material left by the 1947-1948, Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition. 

 

“Historical Archaeology and the Byrd Legacy:  The United States Antarctic Service Expedition, 1939-1941”,by Noel D. Broadbent and Lisle Rose, pages 237 – 258, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 110, No. 2, 2002.

This article provides detailed information regarding why the United States launched the largest expedition to Antarctica undertaken by any country up to that time.  The article details the cleanup of East Base by the National Park Service, with National Science Foundation support, in 1991.  The remaining articles and authors within the journal are:  “Richard E. Byrd and the Legacy of Polar Exploration:  Introduction” (Warren R. Hofstra); “Richard E. Byrd’s First Antarctic Expedition” (Eugene Rogers); “Exploring a Secret Land :  The Literary and Technological Legacies of Richard E. Byrd” (Lisle A. Rose); and “Richard Byrd, Polar Exploration, and the Media” (Robert N. Matuozzi).

 

Ice:  The Antarctic Diary of Charles F. Passel, edited by Tim Baughman, Texas Tech University Press, 1995, 401 pages.

West Base geologist Charles Passel’s diary begins the day the USMS North Star sailed for Antarctica and ends six weeks after departing Antarctica in 1941

 

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society:  Reports on Scientific Results of the United States Antarctic Service Expedition, vol. 89, part 1, 1945, 357 pages.

This volume is a compilation of the papers prepared by members of the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition for the society’s November 1941, meeting of the prestigious American Philosophical Society (founded in Philadelphia in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin).  Topics include various scientific areas studied on the expedition, as well as operations, photography and aviation.

 

“Reclaiming a Lost Base”, Michael Parfit, National Geographic, March 1993, pages 110-126.

Declared an international protected historic site by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, Noel Broadbent, archaeologist for the National Science Foundation’s Division of Polar Programs, led a group to clean up East Base on Stonington Island .  Some artifacts were collected, others were covered over by rocks, and structures were stabilized with new plywood.  Home to East Base, USASE,  1939-1941; the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition, 1946-1947; and  the Falkland Island Dependencies Survey expedition under the command of Major Ken Butler,  Broadbent and his seven-man crew prepared Stonington Island for visitors from around the world.

 

Track of the Bear, William Bixby, David McKay Company, Inc, New York , 1965, 309 pages.

Bixby’s book follows the Bear from her construction in Scotland, 1873-1874, by Alexander Stephen and Sons, Ltd., to her watery grave off the coast of Massachusetts on March 19, 1963.  Track of the Bear provides a fascinating account of the Bear’s rescue of survivors of the Greeley expedition, her forty years as a revenue cutter in Alaskan waters, and as an Antarctic exploring vessel for Admiral Richard Byrd on his second Antarctic expedition and the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition.