Newspapers from the edge of the world

We tend to imagine early polar exploration as full of dangerous and dramatic incidents, played out against a backdrop of howling wilderness. However, many of the challenges of high-latitude life in the 19th and early 20th centuries were far more mundane. Polar expedition members spent long months indoors, in cramped, crowded and claustrophobic conditions, when darkness made outdoor activity near-impossible. Even adventurous forays over the ice in the summer could involve tedious hours dragging a heavy sledge over a comparatively featureless icescape, followed by frustrating periods crushed in a small tent, waiting for blizzards to pass.