April, 2024

Few explorers escape some sort of controversy, and Richard Byrd started out his extraordinary career of exploration by claiming to have been the first to fly over the North Pole in 1926. Evidence since then suggests that he got close but not near enough, and was probably guilty of fudging the data.  However, in 1927, he was the first to fly non-stop across the Atlantic, even if it meant crash-landing in Normandy.

Byrd then headed south and in his first expedition (1928-1930) sailed to the Antarctic with his flagship the City of New York, along with three airplanes. He succeeded, properly this time, in flying over the South Pole. He returned to the Antarctic a further four times over the years, and left a wealth of photographic and written evidence of his explorations.

Some of which we hold!

We have for sale a remarkable private album of 49 original photographs of Byrd's 1928-1929 Antarctic expedition, plus larger photos showing the ships, the men, the dogs, in action in difficult conditions.

 

While men in polar conditions suffered from the cold, poor diets, physical stress, and accidents, a little known fact is that the major medical problem was dental hygiene. Both Scott and Amundsen recorded this in their earlier expeditions, and it was also the case with Byrd.  Amongst our memorabilia from this expedition is a dental powder can, still with a faint chalky scent,  it is photographed here.