Vancouver Maritime Museum (VMM) has partnered with the Norwegian Embassy to bring back a popular Fram Museum exhibition, Lessons from the Arctic: How Roald Amundsen Won the Race to the South Pole.
As a gift to the community, the VMM has displayed the exhibition in the windows of the St. Roch shelter so the public can safely enjoy it while remaining outdoors.
The exhibition, which originally ran from November 2019 to January 2020 inside the St. Roch shelter at VMM, will be on view from May 12, 2020 to August 3, 2020.
Lessons from the Arctic tells the story of how Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen used the lessons he learned from the Inuit in the Canadian Arctic in his efforts to become the first explorer to reach the South Pole. Amundsen and his men spent many months in relative isolation, and his experience offers a lesson for our times.
“Roald Amundsen’s experiences in the Canadian Arctic were an important factor in why he was successful in his South Pole Expedition. He knew the dangers of extreme isolation and that maintaining a high morale amongst the crew was important. Through mutual respect, well-balanced meals and regular steam baths from their portable sauna, Amundsen and his men stayed physically and mentally healthy.” – Duncan MacLeod, Curator, Vancouver Maritime Museum
“It seems appropriate to install this fine exhibition as an example of how under very primitive circumstances the great Norwegian explorer dealt with the challenges you and I experience. To me, Roald Amundsen embodies the very characteristics we need to uphold in this time of crisis: he must have been a great listener, a keen observer, a life-long learner and a careful, well-prepared traveller with an unparalleled resilience.” – Joost Schokkenbroek, Executive Director
The panels used in this exhibition were shipped from the National Nordic Museum in Seattle and include some information that was not part of the original Lessons from the Arctic exhibition at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
Last modified: May 19, 2020
