The Royal Geographical Society and Archive, begun in 1830, is one of the world's leaders in geography. There are over sixteen thousand members and two million items housed within the archive. Within these two million items are one million maps, four thousand atlases, half a million photographs, two hundred and fifty thousand books, and many more items such as globes and glass slides.
There was so much to look at in the Royal Geographical Archive! Maps, journals, a compass, a boot, old food, all of it interested me! But the thing that interested me even more was the story behind each item. Each and every item could be accounted for and described in great detail why it was important. It was this alone that made each item in the collection that much more important!
The story I was most interested in was the exploration and search for the Northwest Passage in the 1820's. The search for a sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans was a task the Royal Geographical Society decided to undertake, sending out numerous members. Many men left and few returned. One man, John Franklin, died while searching for the Northwest Passage. His second in command took over, and slowly the crew died in the harsh conditions with no way back to sea.
It's stories like this that pull me into history. Things were so much different back then, life so much more uncertain and frightening. It's through the Royal Geographic Society that we can know what happened and properly recall and understand these pivotal moments in the history of exploration. The brave men that ventured into unknown territory should be immortalized for their contributions and sometimes sacrifices.
No comments:
Post a Comment