Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration

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Activities in Antarctica During the 20th Century
International agreements
Antarctic Treaty System
British Commonwealth activities
Scott's 1st expedition (1901-04)
Shackleton's 1st expedition (1907-09)
Scott's 2nd expedition (1910-13)
Shackleton's 2nd expedition (1914-17)
Shackleton's 3rd expedition (1921-22)
Mawson's expedition (1929-31)
The Graham Land Expedition (1934-37)
Operation Tabarin (1943-45)
Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (Fuchs-Hillary) (1955-58)
French activities
Charcot's 1st expedition (1903-05)
Charcot's 2nd expedition (1908-10)
German activities
Drygalski's expedition (1901-03)
Filchner's expedition (1911-12)
The New Swabia Expedition (1938-39)
Norwegian activities
Amundsen's expedition (1910-12)
U.S. activities
Operation Highjump (1946-47)
Operation Windmill (1947-48)
Ronne's expedition (1947-48)
Operation Deep Freeze (1955-56)

The Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration (1895-1922) is the period of time at the beginning of the 20th century when brave men set out to face the frozen Antarctic wilderness in search of fame and glory for their achievements and discoveries. Many died on their expeditions, while others returned triumphant to become well known lecturers and authors. The Age was inaugurated by the Sixth International Geographical Congress in 1895 with a formal call to scientific societies around the world to urge Antarctic exploration before the close of the 19th century. At the time, it was seen that such was "the greatest piece of geographical exploration still to be undertaken."^[1]

The Age itself is best characterized by the race to the south pole, which has been compared to the space race and the lunar landing in the 1960s in its ability to capture the attention of the public. Shortly after Amundsen reached the pole in 1911, World War I began, and as it was the most devastating war known until that time, battlefield heroism then eclipsed that of Antarctic adventure in the eyes of the public.^[2] Fewer expeditions were launched in the years immediately following the war, loosely marking the end of the Heroic Age. Some sources place its end with the death of British explorer Ernest Shackleton in 1922.^[3]

When exploration finally did resume in force in later decades, its character was quite different. Prior to the war, radio communication was not possible between expeditions and the civilized world, and machinized transport, although sometimes present, was not a significant boon. Later, expeditions harnessed these technologies effectively, greatly reducing the dangers involved.

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