arctic miscellany

spes aspera levat. 🧭 J., they/them, no longer in my 20s // medievalist interested in early 19th c polar explorers // 🇧🇻 🏳️‍🌈 personal @ twopennyspells

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@prouvvaire already did 🫡

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN @LtJWFairholme Yeah!! I've seen some samples from Olga and some of it is truly SO bad, and when she was using a blunt pencil too...... 💀

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

John Richardson c. 1830, portrait sketch by Negelen. Jane Griffin (later Franklin) said in 1824 that he looked "like a Scotchman" - whatever that means - and was "rather plain", but with a "thoughtful, mild and pleasing" face.

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN Right? Just a very Scottish face. I guess.🧐 It is so nice!! I wanted to see what he looked like young & was so thrilled to find it. JM Negelen coming through, unlike for JCR! 😂

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@LtJWFairholme I knowwww it's so hilarious but I honestly live for it, her diaries are so funny. I understand *why* they've never been edited&published but i do lament it!!

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

i had to edit my richardson post because it was too focused on the negative goss. he doesn't deserve that

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN hhh yeah. I don't want to drag anyone by name since that's searchable but yeah, the MS needed more editing than it got. (re: the actual argument, I didn't even try to parse that, I was mostly just scrolling for illustrations; just went a bit 'oh no' at the uncaught typos)

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

man, i spent a big chunk of yesterday reading/skimming through an FE book that was published recently-ish from an unfinished MS, after the original author's death, and a "light hand" in editing another scholar's work is one thing, but the amount of typos!!!

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN Where are the Victorian cartoonists when we need them

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

The mental images evoked by this phrasing....

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN It was and she did, yes. The Lefroy bequest seems to be what largely inspired her to write the book. She also had access to unpublished material from relatives. She acknowledged the lack of a list of manuscript sources in her preface, I just really wish we had them, lmao.

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

The adventures of Richards and Inglefield's bothersome guest, and his potential skelewidow 💀💗💀 (The bones in question have since been proposed to be those of HDS Goodsir.) Hashtag myskellington

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN Exactly! What a hardass. Iirc he was towed for at least some of it but even so... I kinda love that he continued to insist on sailing whenever he could. Clearly he just loved it

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

The mental images evoked by this phrasing....

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN I assume so, yeah. (It's a shame re the citations because from what I've read I really like the Woodward bio, and the bibliography seems quite thorough, *except* when it comes to personal papers!)

[JamesFitzjames.com ⚓️ @CaptFitzjamesRN]

"Poor old gallant Sir John Ross' Yacht" How nice of you JB, to refer to him so kindly. Meanwhile Clements Markham: that old humbug Sir John Ross.
[John Barrow's journal, October 1875]

[spens @justanormaIgirI]

a half-size model of the "deep sea clam" designed & invented by john ross in preparation for his 1818 expedition. meant to collect sea bed samples & aided in measuring the temperature of water pulled up from said sea bed

(writer, sailor, inventor, liar, what couldn't jross do)

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN Yes! Same, would love to see the rest of that exchange; I liked his sense of humour a lot (and it sounds like a sitcom problem)

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@LtJWFairholme Ohh I hope so, it's so cute 🥺🩷 It looks like it says "Pheeny", but for obvious reasons I don't entirely trust my eyes on that 😂 It's so cool that you have this though, it brings you so close to them!!

[arctic miscellany @baffin_j]

@CaptFitzjamesRN As someone who loves insignificant/ephemeral material culture, all these labels make me sooo happy lmao