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Joan Myers: Wondrous Cold, An Antarctic Journey

CAE1103

Summary Note

Joan Myers received an Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant from the National Science Foundation that allowed her to spend three months photographing scientific study and daily life at McMurdo Station. Materials include research materials, journals, maps, documents, grant applications, correspondence, press materials, and Antarctic and NSF ephemera.

Biographical Note

Joan Myers was born in 1944 in Des Moines, Iowa, and had an early interest in the sciences and mathematics. At Stanford University, her concentration on Renaissance and baroque music performance led to a B.A in 1966 and a M.A. in musicology in 1967. In the early 1970's Ms. Myers turned to photography. Myers developed many projects in the years that followed that resulted in exhibitions and accompanying books.

In 1982, Joan Myers received a NEA/Museum of New Mexico Survey grant to photograph the Santa Fe Trail, a project that resulted in a SITES three-year exhibit tour and a book, "Along the Santa Fe Trail". In 1983-1985, she photographed the Japanese Relocation Camps from the 1940s; a SITES exhibit tour began in 1996, accompanied by a book, "Whispered Silences". In 1988-1989, she photographed the medieval pilgrimage route across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. A book entitled "Santiago: Saint of Two Worlds" was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 1991, and the exhibit was toured by the Albuquerque Museum. Joan Myers' book, "Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California", a ten-year photographic study of the Salton Sea in southern California with text by William deBuys, was published by University of New Mexico Press in 1999 and won the Western States Book Award for non-fiction. Also in 1999, Ms. Myers completed a series "Western Power" for the National Millennium Survey directed by James Enyeart at the College of Santa Fe. In 2001 Ms. Myers' book "Pie Town Woman" was published by University of New Mexico Press and received an award for Best Illustrated Trade Book from the Publishers Association of the West. In 2002, the National Science Foundation awarded Joan Myers an Antarctic Artists and Writer's Grant to photograph at McMurdo Station, surrounding field stations, historic huts, and the South Pole during the 2002-2003 austral summer. A SITES (Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service) show entitled "Wondrous Cold: an Antarctic Journey" which began touring in May 2006, accompanied by a book published by Smithsonian Books.

Currently, she maintains her residence and studio near Santa Fe, New Mexico, and teaches workshops throughout the country.

Scope and Content

Joan Myers visited the Antarctic three times on private tours beginning in 2001 before receiving an Antarctic Artists and Writers Program grant from the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs. The NSF grant allowed her to spend three months, from October 2002 through January 2003, photographing scientific study and daily life at McMurdo Station. She also explored the interior of the continent by plane, ship, helicopter and snowmobile. While away from McMurdo base, she spent some time photographing on a Coast Guard icebreaker, at the South Pole, at field stations in the Dry Valleys and from the top of Mt. Erebus, an active volcano. In subsequent years she visited the Antarctic region with Quark Expeditions.

These trips resulted in a book and traveling exhibition titled "Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey", which premiered at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History on May 17, 2006 and ended at the Nevada Museum of Art in early 2011, whereupon the exhibition photographs entered its Altered Landscape collection. The archive consists of materials generated through initial and continued research and the previously mentioned activities. Materials include research materials, journals, maps, documents, grant applications, correspondence, press materials, and Antarctic and NSF ephemera.

Arrangement

The archive is arranged in 3 series organized by subject.
  • Series 1: Research
  • Series 2: Voyages/NSF
  • Series 3: Project Outcomes and Press

Inclusive Dates

1997-2011

Bulk Dates

2001-2004

Quantity / Extent

.5 cubic feet

Language

English, Russian, German

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  • CAE1219: Stuart Klipper: The Antarctic, From the Circle to the Pole
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  • CAE1605: Anna McKee: 68,000 Years of Ice
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Related Publications

Alberts, Fred G., Editor. Geographic Names of the Antarctic. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation, 1995.

Amundsen, Roald. The South Pole: An Account of the Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in the “Fram,” 1910-1912. New York, NY: Cooper Square Press, 2001.

Amundson, Roald. The Amundsen Photographs. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1987.

Andrews, Lynne. Antarctic Eye: The Visual Journey. Mount Rumney Tasmania, Australia: Studio One, 2007.

Anthony, Jason C. Hoosh: Roast Penguin, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.

Arthur, Elizabeth. Antarctic Navigation: A Novel. New York, NY: Knopf, 1995.

Bancroft, Ann. Four to the Pole! American Women’s Expedition to Antarctica, 1992-1993. North Haven, CT: Linnet Books, 2001.

Barrow, Thomas F. Photography: New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: Fresco Fine Art Publications, 2008.

Batchelor, John Calvin. The Birth of the People’s Republic of Antarctica. London: Panther Books, 1984.

Baughman, T.H. Before the Heroes Came: Antarctica in the 1890s. Lincoln, NE: University of Nevada Press, 1994.

Behrendt, John C. Innocents on the Ice: A Memoir of Antarctic Exploration. Niwot, CO: University of Colorado, 1998.

Bergreen, Laurence. Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe. New York, NY: Harper Collin’s Publishers, 2003.

Bickel, Lennard. Mawson’s Will: The Greatest Polar Survival Story Ever Written. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 2000.

Bickel, Lennard. Shackleton’s Forgotten Men: The Untold Tragedy of the Endurance Epic. New York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2000.

Bowden, Tim. Antarctica and Back in Sixty Days. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1991.

Bowden, Tim. Hurley, Frank. Laseron, Charles. Antarctic Eyewitness. Australia: Harper Collins Publishers, 2000.

Brandt, Anthony. The South Pole: A Historical Reader. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2004.

Brandt, Anthony. The South Pole: A Historical Reader. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2004.

Brown, Nan. Antarctic Housewife. London, England: Hutchinson of Australia, 1971.

Burke, David. Monday at McMurdo. Australia: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1967.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn. Alone. New York, NY: GP Putnam Sons, 1995.

Byrd, Richard Evelyn. Discovery: The Story of the Second Byrd Antarctic Expedition. New York, NY: GP Putnam Sons, 1935.

Campbell, David G. The Crystal Desert: Summers in Antarctica. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1992.

Carr, Tim. Antarctic Oasis: Under the Spell of South Georgia. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1998.

Carter, Paul A. Little America: Town at the End of the World. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1979.

Cassidy, William A. Meteorites, Ice, and Antarctica: A Personal Account. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Cherry-Garrard, Apsley. The Worst Journey in the World. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1997.

Cook, Frederick Albert. Through the First Antarctic Night, 1898-1899. Philadelphia, PA: Polar Publishing Company, 1998.

Crawford, Janet. That First Antarctic Winter: The Story of the Southern Cross Expedition of 1898-1900 as Told in the Diaries of Louis Charles Bernacchi. New Zealand: South Latitude Research, 1998.

Darlington, Jennie. My Antarctic Honeymoon: A Year at the Bottom of the World. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1956.

Davies, Peter Maxwell. Notes from a Cold Climate: Antarctic Symphony. London: Browns, 2001.

Dewart, Gilbert. Antarctic Comrades: an American with the Russians in Antarctica. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1989.

Dewey, Jennifer. Antarctic Journal: Four Months at the Bottom of The World. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001.

Diski, Jenny. Skating to Antarctica. London: Granta Books, 1997.

Doyle, Arthur Coanan. Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Dufek, George J. Operation Deepfreeze. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace, 1957.

Ehlrich, Gretel. This Cold Heaven: Seven Season in Greenland. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2001.

Ehrlich, Gretel. The Future of Ice: A Journey into the Cold. New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2004.

Fearnley, Laurence. Degrees of Separation. Auckland, NA: Penguin Books, 2006.

Fiennes, Ranulph. Mind Over Matter: The Epic Crossing of the Antarctic Continent. New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1995.

Fleming, Fergus. Barrow’s Boys: The Original Extreme Adventurers. New York, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000.

Fox, William L. Terra Antarctica: Looking into the Emptiest Continent. San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press, 2005.

Fuchs, Vivian. Of Ice and Men: The Story of the British Antarctic Survey, 1943-73. England: A. Nelson, 1982.

Fuchs, Vivian. The Crossing of Antarctica. Boston, MA: Little, Brown Company, 1968.

Gosnell, Mariana. Ice: The Nature, The History, and the Uses of An Astonishing Substance. New York, NY: Knopf, 2005.

Gould, Laurence McKinley. Cold: The Record of an Antarctic Sledge Journey. New York, NY: Brewer, Warren, & Putnam, 1931.

Griffiths, Tom. Slicing the Silence: Voyaging to Antarctica. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.

Harrowfield, David L. Icy Heritage: The Historic Sites of the Ross Sea Region. New Zealand: Antarctic Heritage Trust, 1995.

Headland, Robert. South Georgia: A Concise Account. Cambridge: British Antarctic Survey, 1982.

Henry, Thomas R. The White Continent: The Story of Antarctica. New York, NY: William Sloane Associates, 1950.

Huntford, Roland. The Last Place of Earth: Scott and Amundsen’s Race to the South Pole. New York, NY: Modern Library, 1999.

Hurley, Frank. Shackleton’s Argonauts: The Epic Tale of Shackleton’s Voyage to Antarctica in 1915. Sydney, AUS: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1979.

Hurley, Frank. South with Endurance: Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition, 1914-1917. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2001.

Innes, Hammond. The White South. London: Collins Clear-type Press, 1975.

Kaminski, Margaret. Moving to Antarctica: An Anthology of Women’s Writing. Paradise, CA: Dustbooks, 1975.

Kavenna, Joanna. The Ice Museum: in Search of the Lost Land of Thule. London: Viking, 2006.

Keneally, Thomas. A Victim of the Aurora. England: Collins, 1977.

Kent, Rockwell. N by E. New York, NY: Literary Guild, 1930.

King, H.G.R. The Antarctic. New York, NY: Arco Publishing Company, 1969.

Klipper, Stuart. Cardinal Points. Iowa City, IA: The University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1998.

Klipper, Stuart. The Antarctic: From the Circle to the Pole. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2008.

Klipper, Stuart. The Barents Sea, Franz Josef Land, The Arctic Ocean & The North Pole. Place of publication not identified, Self-published, 2009.

Kobakenko, Jerry. The Horizontal Everest: Extreme Journeys on Ellesmere Island. New York, NY: Soho, 2002.

Kurkov, Andrei. Death and the Penguin. London: Harvill Press, 2001.

Lagerbom, C.H. The Fifth Man: Henry R. Bowers. England: Caedmon of Whitby, 1999

Lambert, Katherine. The Longest Winter: The Incredible Survival of Captain Scott’s Lost Party. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books, 2004.

Land, Barbara. The New Explorers Women in Antarctica. New York, NY: Dodd, Mead, 1981.

Legler, Gretchen. On the Ice: An Intimate Portrait of Life at McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Minneapolis, MN: Milkweed Editions, 2005.

Loewen, Nancy and Barcroft, Ann. Four to the Pole! The American Women’s Expedition to Antarctica 1992-93. North Haven, CT: Linnet Books, 2001.

Long, John A. Mountains of Madness: A Scientist’s Odyssey in Antarctica. Washington, DC: J. Henry Press, 2001.

Manhire, Bill, Editor. The Wide White Page: Writers Imagine Antarctica. New Zealand: Victoria University Press, 2004.

Mastro, Jim. Antarctica: A Year at the Bottom of The World. Boston, MA: Bulfinch Press, 2002.

McElrea, Richard. Polar Castaways: The Ross Sea Party (1941-17) of Sir Ernest Shackleton. New Zealand: Canterbury University Press, 2004.

Morris, M.E. The Icemen: A Novel of Antarctica. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1988.

Murphy. Robert Cushman. Logbook for Grace: Whaling brig Daisy 1912-1913. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, 1947.

Myers, Joan. Along the Santa Fe Trail. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1986.

Myers, Joan. Pie Town Woman. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 2001.

Myers, Joan. Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-down California. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1999.

Myers, Joan. Santiago: Saint of Two Worlds. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1991.

Myers, Joan. Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service; Smithsonian Books, 2006.

Naveen, Ron. Waiting to Fly: My Escapades with the Penguins of Antarctica. New York, NY: W. Morrow, 1999.

Neider, Charles. Beyond Cape Horn: Travels in the Antarctic. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 1980.

Neider, Charles. Edge of the World, Ross Island, Antarctica. New York, NY: Sooper Square Press, 2001.

Nordenskjöld, Otto. Antarctica: or Two Years Amongst the Ice of the South Pole. London, Great Britain, Hurst and Blackett, 1905.

Okihiro, Gary Y. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1996.

O’Boyle, Shaun. Portraits of Place in Antarctica. Place of publication not identified: Self-published, 2016.

Ponting, Herbert George. 1910-1916 Antarctic Photographs: Scott, Mawson, and Shackleton Expeditions. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1980.

Porter, Eliot. Antarctica. New York, NY: Dutton, 1978.

Rassmussen, Kund. Across Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition. New York, NY: GP Putnam Sons, 1927.

Riffenburgh, Beau. Shackleton’s Forgotten Expedition: The Voyage of the Nimrod. New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2004.

Roberts, Leslie Carol. The Entire Earth and Sky: Views on Antarctica. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.

Rodgers, Eugene. Beyond the Barrier: The Story of Byrd’s First Expedition to Antarctica. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1990.

Rogers, Susan Fox. Antarctica: Life on the Ice. Palo Alto, CA: Travelers’ Tales, 2007.

Ronne, Edith M. Antarctica’s First Lady: Memoirs of the First American Woman to Set Foot in the Antarctic Continent and Winter-over as a member of a Pioneering Expedition. Beamont, TX: Clifton Steamboat Museum, 2004.

Ronne, Finn. Antarctic Command. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961.

Rowell, Galen A. Poles Apart: Parallel Visions of the Arctic and Antarctic. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995.

Rucka, Greg. White-out: Melt. Portland, OR: Oni Press, 2000.

Rymill, John. 1986 reprint of Southern Light : The Official Account of the British Graham Land Expedition, 1934-193. Colwall: Knell Press, 1986.

Scholes, Arthur. Seventh Continent. London: Butler and Tanner, 1953.

Scott, Robert F. The Voyage of Discovery: Scott’s First Antarctic Expedition. New York, NY: Cooper Square Press, 2001.

Scott, Samuel. To the Ends of the Earth: Painting the Polar Landscape. Salem, MA: Peabody Essex Museum, 2008.

Shackleton’s Antarctic Adventure: The Greatest Survival Story of All Time. Chatsworth, CA: WGBH Educational Foundation & White Mountain Films, 2001. DVD

Simpson-Housley, Paul. Antarctica: Exploration, Perception, and Metaphor. London: Routledge, 1992.

Smith, Michael. Tom Crean: Unsung Hero of the Scott and Shackleton Antarctic Expeditions. Seattle, WA: Mountaineers Books, 2001.

Smith, Roff. Life on the Ice: No one Goes to Antarctica Alone. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2005.

Spude, Catherine Holder. East Base Historic Monument, Stonington Island/Antarctic Peninsula. Denver, CO: US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1993.

Spufford, Francis. I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1997.

Stanton, William Tagan. The Great United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1975.

Stone, Gregory S. Ice Island: Expedition to Antarctica’s Largest Iceberg. Charlestown, MA: Bunker Hill Publishing, 2003.

Streever, Bill. Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co., 2009.

Stroud, Mike. Shadows on the Wasteland: Crossing Antarctica with Ranulph Fiennes. London, England: J. Cape, 1994.

Tarn, Nathaniel. Godwana: and other poems. New York, NY: New Directions Books, 2017.

Tarn, Nathaniel. The Persephones. Santa Barabara, CA: Christopher’s Books, 1974.

Tyler-Lewis, Kelly. The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party. New York, NY: Viking, 2006.

University of Wyoming Art Museum. Antarctica. Laramie, WY: University of Wyoming Art Museum, 2007.

Vaughan, Norman D. With Byrd at the Bottom of the World. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1990

Venables, Stephen. Island at the Edge of The World, London, England: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991.

Verne, Jules. Desert of Ice. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Fredonia Books, 2002.

Webb, Sophie. My Season with Penguins: An Antarctic Journal. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

Wheeler, Sara. Cherry: The Life of Apsley Cherry-Garrard. New York, NY: Random House, 2002.

Wheeler, Sara. Terra incognita: Travels in Antarctica. New York, NY : Modern Library, 1999.

Wilson, Eric. The Spiritual History of Ice: Romanticism, Science, and the Imagination. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Wright, Charles S. Silas: The Antarctic Diaries and Memoir of Charles S. Wright. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1993.

Archive S-Box 23 1#1 London Times, Newspaper, 2001

Container Listing by Series:

CAE1103/1 Series 1: Research, 2001-2010

Series 1 includes materials created in generation of the project and Myers’ visit to Antarctica.

  • ARCH-FILE 14-1

    • 1-1 Antarctic Research, 2001-2008
    • 1-2 Antarctic Related Literature, 2001-2010
    • 1-3 Correspondence and Contacts, 2001-2006

CAE1103/2 Series 2: Voyages/NSF, 1997-2004

Series 2 includes materials generated during Myers’ visits to Antarctica

  • ARCH-FILE 14-1

    • 2-1 Antarctic Travel-Stanford Alumni Assoc., Jan. 2001, 1997-2001
    • 2-2 Antarctic Travel-Zegrahm Expeditions, Nov. 2001, 2000-2002
    • 2-3 Antarctic Travel-Aurora Expeditions, Feb. 2002, 2002-2003
    • 2-4 NSF Grant Application, 2001-2003
    • 2-5 NSF Correspondence, 1999-2004
    • 2-6 NSF Support Package, 2002
    • 2-7 NSF Packing List and Notes, 2002
    • 2-8 NSF Welcome Pack, 2002
    • 2-9 NSF Logistics, 2002-2003
    • 2-10 NSF Journals, 2001-2003
    • 2-11 NSF Program and Antarctic Ephemera, 1999-2002
    • 2-12 Antarctic Travel-Quark Expeditions, Jan. 2003, 2002-2003
    • 2-13 Antarctic Travel-Quark Expeditions, Nov. 2004, 2004

Additional Materials

  • ARCH-OBJ

    • 2-11#1 Antarctica Orca Pencil, 2002 – 2003
    • 2-11#2 Antarctica Penguin Pen, 2002 – 2003
    • 2-11#3 South Face of Mt Erebus, Key Ring, 2002 – 2003
    • 2-11#4 Volcanic Rhyolite Rock, not dated
    • 2-13#2 Quark Expeditions Pen, 2004

CAE1103/3 Series 3: Project Outcomes and Press, 1999-2011

Series 3 contains materials related to the outcomes of the project including exhibition ephemera, publication, educational materials and press materials.

  • ARCH-FILE 14-1

    • 3-1 SITES Exhibition, 2004-2008
    • 3-2 SITES Education and Promotional Resource Manual, 2002-2007
    • 3-3 Book Correspondence, Research, and Production, 2002-2010
    • 3-4 Correspondence with Sandra Blakeslee, 1999-2005
    • 3-5 Exhibition Ephemera, 2003-2011
    • 3-6 Press, 2002-2011