Race to the End of the Exhibit
Oct. 25th, 2010 09:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tealinThey wouldn't allow photography, but they never took my sketchbook away ...
Now, I am not a very emotive person. So for the purposes of entertainment, I have included an illustrated commentary of what was going on inside the placid, sketching figure, who otherwise attracted very little attention aside from occasionally being asked to step aside from a sign.
Brace yourself for many images and some severe geekery:
When you first come in the exhibit, after the sort of anteroom of cold blue walls and penguin statues, you watch a short video that sets up the backstory and the main players in Scott and Amundsen's expeditions. You are then instructed to take a card from one of the two dispensers nearby, which will give you a person to follow through the exhibit (and through time). I had planned to throw myself on the mercy of the docents to get a complete set of the British team, but This Being America, the idea of 'one card' seemed to have been interpreted as 'take out any number of cards until you get the one you want,' so there was a nice big pile of rejected cards on top of the dispensers, and I just had to sort through them to get one of each:
Next up was a brief history of polar exploration – I've read the preface to Cherry's book which has quite enough of that, thank you, so in the interest of time I kind of skimmed this – and then we were off! Artifacts from the Terra Nova! There was also a large display board with a diagram of the ship, and a great big print of the 'formal' crew photo, at which I discovered I could actually recognize people! I tried to jot down who I thought I could spot so I could check it against my books at home, some of which try their best to attribute people. I had had some misgivings regarding which bare-headed lad in this photo was Cherry; even after seeing this large print I think it's still up for debate.
A little explanation: those three circles with lines through them were the one thing I'd have liked to take an actual photo of because the sketch just isn't as funny. It was on a little 'fact sheet' about Antartcica: No animals, no plants, no native human population. But I've been looking at Terra Nova photos long enough now that I'm pretty good at recognizing the most famous ones, and the image they used to get that silhouette is a portrait of Scott. Somehow that made it really funny. Other people are allowed, but no Robert Falcon Scotts!
Next were the recreations of parts of the hut at Cape Evans.
Scott's little alcove was very interesting and gorgeously put together but didn't tell me anything about it that the famous photo couldn't, so I decided to devote my sketching energy to the 'Tenements'.
They rather uncharitably pretended Meares and Atch didn't have bunks there; not only were they not included in the set but the photo was cropped so as not to raise suspicions amongst the public. Hmmmm! (I know, they were limited for space, I know.)
At the bottom of that page you'll see a candlestick, which was part of the little corner devoted to the Winter Journey, in which Bill, Cherry, and Birdie went off (as one does) to collect Emperor penguin eggs in the middle of the Antarctic winter. This is, unsurprisingly, what The Worst Journey in the World was titled after. They almost died! Several times! And when they got back, Bill made a comic about it. Sigh ...
Anyway, according to Daniel the Explainer (more on him later) everything behind glass was a genuine artifact unless labelled otherwise, but the wording for the candlestick vaguely referred to them using homemade improvised equipment, 'like this.'
Across from that, and then again down the aisle, were displays of Antarctic clothing. It was at this point that I began to wonder if there was anything left in the Scott Polar Research Institute, and how much this touring exhibition was insured for, and how carefully they check the maintenance on the airplanes they plan to use. I mean ... really. Aside from the British snowsuit here, they had an authentic Norwegian reindeer fur outfit, possibly Amundsen's actual one. Ever hear the term 'irreplaceable'?
Also, having just finished Cherry's biography a couple days before, I wondered how much of his stuff was in the collection Angela rescued from Lamer before it was auctioned off. Probably all of it! The signs didn't say for certain but I suspect the snowsuit was his. Cherry, you ninny. (I'm just talking to myself, here, don't mind me ... )
Ahem! Did I mention there were goggles? They totally touched people's faces!
Then there was a bunch of stuff about the Norwegians and how they were all clever and dug out rooms in the ice shelf and even had a sauna, etc etc ... Another couple of very neat room recreations, but do you know how long those take to draw? I'm not going to squander valuable geeking time copying something I can get out of a photo, psh! (Also, my feet were starting to hurt.) There was a bit of a long stretch here without any artifacts, just a great big illustrated timeline of each team's progress towards the South Pole. Very nicely put together! If I haven't mentioned it already, the production design was fantastic. Clear as day and yet still retaining that period feel. Whoever was responsible for that, I salute you. The only weird thing about it was that the whole exhibit 'read' from right to left, rather that the opposite – this made things like the timeline a bit counterintuitive, but it was laid out in such a way that one was never in doubt which direction one was supposed to go.
Near the end of the timeline was the one thing that affected me most in the whole exhibit, and that completely by surprise. It was a reproduction of Bill's sketch of the black flag that signalled they had been beaten to the Pole. I'd seen the coloured version, which someone else had done off the sketch afterwards, but to see that ... I didn't even know he had done a sketch of it,* though it makes sense in retrospect.
*I fully expect to find it in the companion book, which I pored over before leaving for New York, along with Cherry's camera. Retention win!
And then ...
The music and voiceover quotes accompanying this section can be heard from the opening bit, which butts onto it in the elabourate snakey path the exhibition takes, so people who are paying attention (or are easily distracted) can get the 'ending' spoiled for them ... but this didn't seem to bother anyone.
Coming out from the tent 'room,' you follow the agonizing trudge back to Cape Evans, which ends with a short video.
Because I am a horrible and perverse person, two funny things about the video:
1. Amundsen's quote upon returning to Australia, 'It was a sunny day, and our faces shone in rivalry with the sun,' juxtaposed with a photo of him looking characteristically dour
2. Animated bits! Dear AMNH, I would like to reanimate your animated bits. They are OK, but Taff's collapse was ... slightly slapstick.
But right next to the video was a display case ... with ...
Remember Daniel the Explainer? It's been a long time since I've spent all that much time in museums, but it appears that the traditional 'docent' has been replaced with an 'explainer,' in this case an spry old man in a high-visibility vest,* who will do his level best to interpret exhibits for you. He seemed to spend most of his time explaining to bewildered Americans the mindset behind the British decision to rely on manhauling ('but it's so stupid!'). I had asked him whether it was going on tour and he said yes, he didn't know where, but it would be after January 2, to which I replied that was funny because that was Cherry's birthday – and the geek bond was forged. He kept checking back to see if I had any questions. I'm terrible at asking questions, mostly because I fail to see when there is a question to be asked – aside from anything else, if I'd have been thinking I would have asked him about the candlestick. We had a couple of good discussions, one about the flaws of the 'heroes' of the Polar Party**, and another about errors in the exhibit^, but for the most part he attended to his duty to the hapless innocents.
*not actually a high-visibility vest, but that's the impression it gave
**Dr MacPhee has a very realistic passage in the companion book where he plainly states the character flaws of the main players, though I noticed he didn't list any for Bill...
^I had found a photo where Titus was labelled as Birdie; still don't know how anyone could make that mistake – he said there were some errors in the dates on the timeline and the elevation chart of the route up the Beardmore was inaccurate
Towards the end of the day, though, while I was labouring over the overshoes, he led a lady over to that area and she asked what order the Polar Party died in. I don't usually like to interrupt but I had recently heard explained the theory for Why Birdie Was Last so I did my best to pass it on, which got this reaction:
At that point my feet were telling me quite clearly that they'd had enough, so I did one more quick once-through, grabbed a quick sketch of Titus' bunk, and made for the tragically hilarious gift shop.
Now, I am not a very emotive person. So for the purposes of entertainment, I have included an illustrated commentary of what was going on inside the placid, sketching figure, who otherwise attracted very little attention aside from occasionally being asked to step aside from a sign.
Brace yourself for many images and some severe geekery:
When you first come in the exhibit, after the sort of anteroom of cold blue walls and penguin statues, you watch a short video that sets up the backstory and the main players in Scott and Amundsen's expeditions. You are then instructed to take a card from one of the two dispensers nearby, which will give you a person to follow through the exhibit (and through time). I had planned to throw myself on the mercy of the docents to get a complete set of the British team, but This Being America, the idea of 'one card' seemed to have been interpreted as 'take out any number of cards until you get the one you want,' so there was a nice big pile of rejected cards on top of the dispensers, and I just had to sort through them to get one of each:
Next up was a brief history of polar exploration – I've read the preface to Cherry's book which has quite enough of that, thank you, so in the interest of time I kind of skimmed this – and then we were off! Artifacts from the Terra Nova! There was also a large display board with a diagram of the ship, and a great big print of the 'formal' crew photo, at which I discovered I could actually recognize people! I tried to jot down who I thought I could spot so I could check it against my books at home, some of which try their best to attribute people. I had had some misgivings regarding which bare-headed lad in this photo was Cherry; even after seeing this large print I think it's still up for debate.
A little explanation: those three circles with lines through them were the one thing I'd have liked to take an actual photo of because the sketch just isn't as funny. It was on a little 'fact sheet' about Antartcica: No animals, no plants, no native human population. But I've been looking at Terra Nova photos long enough now that I'm pretty good at recognizing the most famous ones, and the image they used to get that silhouette is a portrait of Scott. Somehow that made it really funny. Other people are allowed, but no Robert Falcon Scotts! Next were the recreations of parts of the hut at Cape Evans.
Scott's little alcove was very interesting and gorgeously put together but didn't tell me anything about it that the famous photo couldn't, so I decided to devote my sketching energy to the 'Tenements'.
They rather uncharitably pretended Meares and Atch didn't have bunks there; not only were they not included in the set but the photo was cropped so as not to raise suspicions amongst the public. Hmmmm! (I know, they were limited for space, I know.)At the bottom of that page you'll see a candlestick, which was part of the little corner devoted to the Winter Journey, in which Bill, Cherry, and Birdie went off (as one does) to collect Emperor penguin eggs in the middle of the Antarctic winter. This is, unsurprisingly, what The Worst Journey in the World was titled after. They almost died! Several times! And when they got back, Bill made a comic about it. Sigh ...
Anyway, according to Daniel the Explainer (more on him later) everything behind glass was a genuine artifact unless labelled otherwise, but the wording for the candlestick vaguely referred to them using homemade improvised equipment, 'like this.'Across from that, and then again down the aisle, were displays of Antarctic clothing. It was at this point that I began to wonder if there was anything left in the Scott Polar Research Institute, and how much this touring exhibition was insured for, and how carefully they check the maintenance on the airplanes they plan to use. I mean ... really. Aside from the British snowsuit here, they had an authentic Norwegian reindeer fur outfit, possibly Amundsen's actual one. Ever hear the term 'irreplaceable'?
Also, having just finished Cherry's biography a couple days before, I wondered how much of his stuff was in the collection Angela rescued from Lamer before it was auctioned off. Probably all of it! The signs didn't say for certain but I suspect the snowsuit was his. Cherry, you ninny. (I'm just talking to myself, here, don't mind me ... )
Ahem! Did I mention there were goggles? They totally touched people's faces!
Then there was a bunch of stuff about the Norwegians and how they were all clever and dug out rooms in the ice shelf and even had a sauna, etc etc ... Another couple of very neat room recreations, but do you know how long those take to draw? I'm not going to squander valuable geeking time copying something I can get out of a photo, psh! (Also, my feet were starting to hurt.) There was a bit of a long stretch here without any artifacts, just a great big illustrated timeline of each team's progress towards the South Pole. Very nicely put together! If I haven't mentioned it already, the production design was fantastic. Clear as day and yet still retaining that period feel. Whoever was responsible for that, I salute you. The only weird thing about it was that the whole exhibit 'read' from right to left, rather that the opposite – this made things like the timeline a bit counterintuitive, but it was laid out in such a way that one was never in doubt which direction one was supposed to go.Near the end of the timeline was the one thing that affected me most in the whole exhibit, and that completely by surprise. It was a reproduction of Bill's sketch of the black flag that signalled they had been beaten to the Pole. I'd seen the coloured version, which someone else had done off the sketch afterwards, but to see that ... I didn't even know he had done a sketch of it,* though it makes sense in retrospect.
*I fully expect to find it in the companion book, which I pored over before leaving for New York, along with Cherry's camera. Retention win!
And then ...
The music and voiceover quotes accompanying this section can be heard from the opening bit, which butts onto it in the elabourate snakey path the exhibition takes, so people who are paying attention (or are easily distracted) can get the 'ending' spoiled for them ... but this didn't seem to bother anyone.
Coming out from the tent 'room,' you follow the agonizing trudge back to Cape Evans, which ends with a short video. Because I am a horrible and perverse person, two funny things about the video:
1. Amundsen's quote upon returning to Australia, 'It was a sunny day, and our faces shone in rivalry with the sun,' juxtaposed with a photo of him looking characteristically dour
2. Animated bits! Dear AMNH, I would like to reanimate your animated bits. They are OK, but Taff's collapse was ... slightly slapstick.
But right next to the video was a display case ... with ...
Remember Daniel the Explainer? It's been a long time since I've spent all that much time in museums, but it appears that the traditional 'docent' has been replaced with an 'explainer,' in this case an spry old man in a high-visibility vest,* who will do his level best to interpret exhibits for you. He seemed to spend most of his time explaining to bewildered Americans the mindset behind the British decision to rely on manhauling ('but it's so stupid!'). I had asked him whether it was going on tour and he said yes, he didn't know where, but it would be after January 2, to which I replied that was funny because that was Cherry's birthday – and the geek bond was forged. He kept checking back to see if I had any questions. I'm terrible at asking questions, mostly because I fail to see when there is a question to be asked – aside from anything else, if I'd have been thinking I would have asked him about the candlestick. We had a couple of good discussions, one about the flaws of the 'heroes' of the Polar Party**, and another about errors in the exhibit^, but for the most part he attended to his duty to the hapless innocents.
*not actually a high-visibility vest, but that's the impression it gave
**Dr MacPhee has a very realistic passage in the companion book where he plainly states the character flaws of the main players, though I noticed he didn't list any for Bill...
^I had found a photo where Titus was labelled as Birdie; still don't know how anyone could make that mistake – he said there were some errors in the dates on the timeline and the elevation chart of the route up the Beardmore was inaccurate
Towards the end of the day, though, while I was labouring over the overshoes, he led a lady over to that area and she asked what order the Polar Party died in. I don't usually like to interrupt but I had recently heard explained the theory for Why Birdie Was Last so I did my best to pass it on, which got this reaction:
At that point my feet were telling me quite clearly that they'd had enough, so I did one more quick once-through, grabbed a quick sketch of Titus' bunk, and made for the tragically hilarious gift shop.
