Admiral Richard E. Byrd was a polar explorer famous for his claimed flight over the North Pole in 1926. Flying over the North Pole is difficult because:
-Six months of the year are spent in darkness
-Hurricane force winds
-Solar waves that bounce off the white ice create a glare (6 months are spent in darkness)
Controversies unfolded as Byrd's co-pilot of the First Antarctic Expedition, calculated that it was physically impossible to fly over the North Pole that quickly. Despite the claims the Byrd Polar Research Center will continue to admire the hardships he endured as a polar explorer. BPRC was named after Ohio State University purchased the "Byrd Papers". The Byrd Paper collection includes boots, letters, spoons, maps, motion picture films, records and miscellaneous items. The Byrd Collection icon is his personal journal which tells accounts from his journeys to polar areas. Byrd Polar Archives houses the 495 boxes of this immense collection. Laura Kissel, my three day submentor, retrieved the original Byrd Diary for me to read again. Byrd was very unorganized and would open the book and write in any page. Chronologically the diary is a mess. I also discovered that on the official box the diary is preserved it says "Dairy of Richard E. Byrd" in two different places. Laura laughed and said she never noticed it before.
For two of the polar expeditions, Byrd took the artist David Abbey Paige. Paige, while in the poles, created beautiful 100 pastel art pieces. Pastels were used because other mediums were not adaptable to Antarctica's weather. Paige was able to capture the pristine skies and accurately. Laura took me too see the pastels by Paige that are now featured at the Faculty Club at OSU.
Michelle Drobik is in charge of the vast Photo Archives. Today she gave me the introduction of her archive. Recently a lawyer phoned her requesting a photo of a previous OSU football player on trial for murder in Georgia. Girls occasionally come into the photo archives to see if their date/boyfriend really was on the football team as they said they were. Sport fanatics (which she said she could spot a mile away), genealogy enthusiasts, scrapbook lovers and HBO have all been a host to this collection of 2 million photos and video.
*The man pictured is Byrd*
1 comment:
Laine,
Your blog is a treasure trove. I am learning so much! All of the background "scoop" on Byrd and the artwork is incredible. I can't believe you were seeing original writings and letters. Amazing. I wonder how many eyes have actually seen some of that work?
Do you get some kind of feeling when you open a writing by a person in the past? Do you consider how people are remembered? I wonder if Byrd knew that his work would intrigue a teen in 2008?
Hey, have you asked any Graham staff to read your blog during 4th quarter? I REALLY urge you to find and ask someone soon becuase your work is so interesting, they should get a head start even before you leave for Europe. I think Amy had a proposal process for approaching teachers to read your blog.
Keep up the great work.
Ryan
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