19th Century Exploration
The 19th century was a time of great exploration. Pushing new boundaries and pushing the human limit of endurance. In our short site we investigate the impacts the search for the Northwest Passage had on encouraging European exploration and three expeditions - the Franklin expedition, the Polaris expedition, and the George Rockwell Putnam expedition. We also look at images brought back from these expeditions to educate, encourage further exploration, and gain funding. These images give us a sense of the viewpoint of these 19th century explorers and what they saw as important, and we take particular note of the recorded interactions that these expeditions had with the Indigenous peoples in the Arctic.