This Friday November 28th, 2014, Founders Seminar Presents:
Dr. Janice Cavell
Historian, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada in presenting: “Northern Atlantis: The Search for an Arctic Continent in the Early Twentieth Century”
When: Friday November 28th Time: 2:30pm- 4:00pm Location: Loeb A220 (Light refreshments will be available) ALL WELCOME

Abstract:
In 1904, Rollin A. Harris of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey put forward the theory that a large undiscovered land mass lay between the Beaufort Sea and the North Pole. The theory, although ridiculed by such Arctic experts as oceanographer and explorer Fridtjof Nansen, quickly took hold. If the northern continent really existed, it was the last undiscovered land mass on the globe, and its discoverer could be assured of lasting fame. Harris’s theory therefore inspired frenzied competition between a host of Arctic adventurers, including Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Donald MacMillan, and Roald Amundsen. Their efforts to find what Robert Peary dubbed the “New Atlantis” was marked not only by futility and frustration but by comic squabbling between rivals and, sadly, by unnecessary risk-taking and loss of life.
However, there was much more to the story than illusion and failure. Ever since the disastrous last Franklin expedition and the prolonged, expensive search efforts that followed it, governments had shied away from sponsoring polar adventures. But at a time when the potential of air transport for both economic and military purposes was becoming ever more apparent, a large new land mass near the North Pole could offer major geopolitical advantages to the nation that claimed it. As ambitious explorers turned to governments for funding, they began to emphasize sovereignty as the key reason why states should interest themselves in polar exploration. The belief in a “Northern Atlantis” therefore helped to inaugurate a new era of state engagement with the Arctic.
Biography:
Janice Cavell received her PhD in Canadian History from Carleton in 2003. Since 2004, she has worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development, where she edits the series Documents on Canadian External Relations (DCER) and does research on the history of Arctic sovereignty. She also has a longstanding interest in nineteenth-century polar exploration. Her publications include Tracing the Connected Narrative: Arctic Exploration in British Print Culture, 1818-1860 (University of Toronto Press, 2008) and Acts of Occupation: Canada and Arctic Sovereignty, 1918-25 (UBC Press, 2010; co-authored with Jeff Noakes). Dr. Cavell is currently working on special Arctic DCER volume.