Erwin Springweiler's medal honors explorers of the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Nathaniel Palmer, for whom the Palmer Research Station is named, was a Connecticut sealer who first sighted Antarctica in 1820. Charles Wilkes, for whom Wilkes Island is named, explored the Antarctic in the 1860s. Adolphus Greely commanded an expedition to establish meteorological stations in the Arctic and in 1886 published an account of the voyage---in which he and his men nearly perished---titled Three Years of Arctic Service. In 1908, Robert Edwin Peary was the first human to reach the North Pole. John Bartlett and his nephew Robert, who are named on this medal, captained ships for Peary's expeditions. In 1925, Richard Evelyn Byrd was the first man to fly over the North Pole. And Lincoln Ellsworth was a wealthy explorer who flew airplanes and dirigibles over the North and South poles on several expeditions.
