Finding Antarctica: Mapping The Last Continent

03 Dec 2011-19 Feb ,

Museums

Step aside Shackleton and Mawson, the New South Wales State Library's new exhibit is shining the spotlight on Antarctica's unsung heroes

First published on 2 Dec 2011. Updated on 20 Feb 2012.

This event has finished

You may not think that the a library would be the best place to spend a summer's day, but the words of Moreton Henry Moyes will cool you down fast – he's the guy who was accidentally left alone on an ice shelf in Antarctica for 10 weeks.

The Finding Antarctica exhibit, curated by Maggie Patton, includes photographs and maps spanning 2000 years of the mapping of Antarctica, complemented by oral history courtesy of Moyes, who was a member of the Western Base party of Douglas Mawson's Antarctica expedition.

Amongst the collection's 100+ rare and contemporary maps is a map hand-drawn by Captain James Cook himself. History doesn't get much more authentic than that.

Other Antarctic-themed events going down at the State Library include:

Mawson's Forgotten Men (13 December): Revealing the 1911-1913 Antarctic diaries of polar explorer Charles Turnbull Harrison.

Cool Readings (20 December): Kate Middleton (the Sydney poet, not the royal princess) reads poems and extracts from and about the Antarctic.

Penguins on Ice (10 January): Steve Martin (the Antarctic expert, not the hilarious veteran actor) shares his knowledge of the relationship between penguin and human over time.

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