Griffith Taylors Antarctica: Science, sentiment, and politics

Abstract

Griffith Taylor (1880-1963) was a scientific member of the Terra Nova expedition. Although he published initially on his geomorphological, glaciological and meteorological research, conducted between 1910 and 1912, he was also a teacher, lecturer, publicist and later political commentator on Antarctica. Initially a loyal Britisher he developed an internationalist perspective on Antarctica without compromising his self-promotional ambitions. Through his professional career in Australia, the US and Canada over the early to mid twentieth century Antarcticas shifting scientific, cultural and political history can be mapped. Just as self-interest permeated theAntarctic Treaty of 1959, so Taylors ambitions persisted as he fashioned himself into a scientific prophet for peace. Taylors Antarctica, an amalgam of sentiment and science, rivalry and cooperation, imperialism and internationalism, popular culture and global politics, was the twentieth centurys Antarctica.