Polar Outreach Catalogue

The NTNU Museum of Natural History and Archaeology presented polar treasures from its collection in the exhibit Death or the West Coast of Greenland. Taking Fridtjof Nansen’s dramatic expedition over the Greenland ice sheet in 1888-1889 as a starting point, the exhibit displays items from this journey as well as 18th century objects from Greenland belonging to the collection of Bishop Gunnerus, one of the founders of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.

Opened in February 2008, the exhibit gives visitors insight into the background for the expedition and the people and preparations involved. The exhibit focuses on the arduous journey across the ice sheet and how Nansen and his crew wintered with the Inuit in Good Hope. While there, Nansen studied Inuit culture, presenting his observations with great insight and respect in books published in the wake of the expedition. The exhibit also illustrates continuity in the Inuit hunting and handicraft traditions.

Thus far, some 100 000 visitors have seen the exhibit, which will remain open through 2011, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Fridtjof Nansen. The exhibit is affiliated with IPY in terms of its funding, and via its presentation of several of the IPY science projects – both in the exhibit itself and through a series of popular-science lectures.