Books: Antarctic Map Folio Series. Folio 19: History of Antarctic Exploration and Scientific Investigation

Philip Morrison reviews Vivian C. Bushnell's edited History of Antarctic Exploration and Scientific Investigation, Folio 19 of the American Geographical Society's Antarctic Map Folio Series, the final installment of a decade-long series supported by the National Science Foundation. Its large folded plates combine text with clear, mainly outline maps: the largest locates 75 stations occupied by a dozen nations during 1954–1975, and five sheets record scientific achievements year by year. Nine introductory sheets trace earlier history, from a Roman geographer's conjectural southern continent and Cook's circumnavigation without a sighting to sealing, whaling, and exploration. Morrison contrasts this exploitation with flourishing scientific bases and notes krill as a possible next commercial target. He enjoys the historical engravings and drawings but finds the modern coverage visually limited to maps and text, judging its account of the South Pole antenna less compelling than the lithograph of Ross's ships in 1842.