Guide to the American Polar Society Records

History of the American Polar Society

The American Polar Society was founded in 1935 as a central clearinghouse of information pertaining to Antarctica. The founding member was August Howard, who proposed the creation of a privately funded organization to serve this purpose. By the time of Byrd's second expedition to Antarctica in 1933, public interest in explorers and Antarctica was at a fever pitch. The Society's publication, the Polar Times, first appeared in June of 1935. It brought news of interest to explorers, armchair explorers, and polar enthusiasts excited by tales of adventure. Famous explorers such as Sir Hubert Wilkins, Richard Byrd, Richard Black, Bernt Balchen, and Finn Ronne joined the American Polar Society. In fact, drawing attention to noteworthy polar explorers and scientists was an important activity of the Society. Beginning in 1936, it designated as "honorary members" those explorers and scientists who had distinguished themselves in polar activities. The APS also celebrated major polar anniversaries. The APS is still in existence today, after faltering briefly in 1988 after Howard's death. Although the science of Antarctica has changed greatly since its inception, and bibliographic databases have made scientific information more widely available, readers of the Polar Times have continued to participate as "armchair" explorers and scientists in unraveling the mysteries of the Polar Regions. Source: "The American Polar Society: Past, Present and Future," by Raimund E. Goerler and Lynn Lay, Polar Libraries Colloquy, 1996.

Scope and Contents

Founded in 1935, the American Polar Society (APS) developed from popular interest in the events of exploration and discovery in the polar regions. The collection consists of three series. Series I contains biographical information concerning August Howard, the founder of the Society, including newspaper clippings, a manuscript history of the National Office of the Boy Scouts, polar stamps, obituaries, and letters of condolence. (See also Box 2, Folder 13.) Series II has copies of the Little America Times, a newsletter published from December 27, 1933 to May 31, 1935, which reported the monthly activities of the second Byrd Expedition to Antarctica and also the Lincoln Ellsworth Expedition of 1935; this includes the publications and correspondence. Series III consists of the records of the Society itself, including constitutions, correspondence, documentation concerning honorary members (publications, letters, photographs), photographs of people and polar scenes (many of which are from the United Press), an account book, and issues of the Polar Times, the newsletter of the APS.

Arrangement

The data in this collection has been divided into the following series:

Duplicate issues of the Polar Times were sent to the Ohio State University Geology Library.

Index Terms

Persons:

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

Records of the American Polar Society

Acquisition Information

Records were donated to the Byrd Center by the American Polar Society in 1988.

Processing Information

Papers were organized by Raimund E. Goerler in 1994. Laura Kissel added materials to the inventory in 1998.

Accruals

Additional records were donated in 1998. The American Polar Society will continue to deposit materials to this collection on an irregular, ongoing basis.

Detailed Description/Box and Folder Listing