This collection consists of material relating to Salomon Andrée's unsuccessful 1896 expedition, including: two oversized prints; a photograph album labeled "Spitsbergen, 1896" which includes images of life on board the ship Virgo and the Örnen balloon; and a scrapbook containing mostly Swedish newspaper article accounts of the journey.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of material relating to Salomon Andrée's unsuccessful 1896 expedition, including: two oversized prints; a photograph album labeled "Spitsbergen, 1896" which includes images of life on board the ship Virgo and the Örnen balloon; and a scrapbook containing mostly Swedish newspaper article accounts of the journey.
Note: The digital images in this finding aid were repurposed from scans made by an outside contractor for a commercial product and may show irregular cropping and orientation in addition to color variations resulting from damage to and deterioration of the original objects.
Arrangement:
The Salomon A. Andrée 1896 Polar Expedition Collection-- is arranged by content type.
Biographical / Historical:
Salomon August Andrée (1854-1897) was a pupil at the Technical Institute in Stockholm. During the 1870s and 1880s, Andrée became interested in both ballooning and meteorological and physical research in polar regions. In 1893, Andrée bought his first balloon and undertook various ascents, and by 1895 had put forth his plans for a balloon flight over the North Pole. The expedition was planned for the summer of 1896, but after reaching Spitsbergen, unfavorable weather conditions caused the flight to be canceled. Thus, the expedition commenced the following summer. Three days after takeoff, the balloon was forced to land, and the men - Andréee, Nils Strindberg, and Knut Fraenkel - spent six weeks trying to return to Spitsbergen before perishing. The remains of their last camp were not found until 1930.
Provenance:
Peter Gustafson, gift, 1993, 1994-0007, NASM
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
