Photo Album Documenting Operation Deep Freeze I, the US Mission to Antarctica in Preparation for the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year
- Photo album measuring 12 ½ x 9 inches containing 171 photos, mainly 3 ½ x 3 ½ inches, with some 4 ½ x 3 ½ inches and one 8
- Antarctica and others , 1956
Antarctica and others, 1956. Photo album measuring 12 ½ x 9 inches containing 171 photos, mainly 3 ½ x 3 ½ inches, with some 4 ½ x 3 ½ inches and one 8 x 10 (damaged, with a partial second copy covering most of the missing material from the first). With a VX-6 / Antarctic mission-themed Christmas card laid in. Very good minus.. An album of photographs documenting the first Operation Deep Freeze, during the Antarctic summer of November 1955 to April 1956. There have been a number of Operations Deep Freeze; these photos are captioned with a printing date of April 1956, and identifiable ships include the USS Nespelen, Edisto, and Wyandot, indicating that these photographs document the first such expedition. Based on the identifiable ships and the VX-6 (Air Development Squadron Six) greeting card, this photographer was likely part of Task Force 43, the Navy air squadron assisting in Deep Freeze.
The purpose of this expedition, which was led by experienced Antarctic explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd, was to support the American scientists participating in the International Geophysical Year (IGY), particularly by establishing and supplying bases, landing strips, iceports, and so on. The IGY was a worldwide scientific project involving collaboration between sixty-seven countries—across Cold War boundaries—on scientific projects ranging from launching satellites to mapping the ocean floor. In the Antarctic, scientists from Australia, the UK, Japan, France, Belgium, and the US established bases for geophysical research.
Part of the project was to build McMurdo Station, a research station on Ross Island, which is connected to the Antarctic landmass by a glacial ice sheet. In one photo, a sign reads, “WELCOME TO MCMURDO HEIGHTS SUMMER RESORT / GOOD PEOPLE – LOW PRICES / AIR COOLED ROOMS – CONTINENTAL CUISINE / BATHS FORBIDDEN (AIR WICK AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST) / NO WOMEN ALLOWED”. Some shots show large swaths of dry ground, likely the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a desert area near McMurdo Sound and the Ross Sea of significant scientific interest. Another project was to build supply routes; in a shot that appears to show just miles of snow, a handwritten sign reads “THIS ROAD MADE BY FAT MAX / WITH THE HELP OF A DIRTY BEARDED TEXAN”.
Many shots show the tent cities, men with their tents, and boxes and boxes of supplies sitting out on the ice. Men and ships are photographed near massive ice walls, giving a sense of scale. Men load up forklifts and are carried on large tractor sleds, and several photographs show a ship with inches of ice encrusting it. One interesting shot shows the precarious method of getting from ship to shore: a ladder lays horizontally from the side of the ship flat onto the ice. Several shots were taken aerially, including some of ice floes and some of men playing with a penguin, which seems to have been a regular activity, as several other photos show a man holding a captured penguin while he (the man) smokes a cigarette.
Other shots include ones of the ship, on deck and in the bunks; people waving from the docks; an unidentified motorcade; and men carrying small Christmas trees onto a ship—a shot from the Antarctic shows one of these trees ‘planted’ outside a tent.
Of interest to Naval historians and researchers of Deep Freeze and the IGY.
The purpose of this expedition, which was led by experienced Antarctic explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd, was to support the American scientists participating in the International Geophysical Year (IGY), particularly by establishing and supplying bases, landing strips, iceports, and so on. The IGY was a worldwide scientific project involving collaboration between sixty-seven countries—across Cold War boundaries—on scientific projects ranging from launching satellites to mapping the ocean floor. In the Antarctic, scientists from Australia, the UK, Japan, France, Belgium, and the US established bases for geophysical research.
Part of the project was to build McMurdo Station, a research station on Ross Island, which is connected to the Antarctic landmass by a glacial ice sheet. In one photo, a sign reads, “WELCOME TO MCMURDO HEIGHTS SUMMER RESORT / GOOD PEOPLE – LOW PRICES / AIR COOLED ROOMS – CONTINENTAL CUISINE / BATHS FORBIDDEN (AIR WICK AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST) / NO WOMEN ALLOWED”. Some shots show large swaths of dry ground, likely the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a desert area near McMurdo Sound and the Ross Sea of significant scientific interest. Another project was to build supply routes; in a shot that appears to show just miles of snow, a handwritten sign reads “THIS ROAD MADE BY FAT MAX / WITH THE HELP OF A DIRTY BEARDED TEXAN”.
Many shots show the tent cities, men with their tents, and boxes and boxes of supplies sitting out on the ice. Men and ships are photographed near massive ice walls, giving a sense of scale. Men load up forklifts and are carried on large tractor sleds, and several photographs show a ship with inches of ice encrusting it. One interesting shot shows the precarious method of getting from ship to shore: a ladder lays horizontally from the side of the ship flat onto the ice. Several shots were taken aerially, including some of ice floes and some of men playing with a penguin, which seems to have been a regular activity, as several other photos show a man holding a captured penguin while he (the man) smokes a cigarette.
Other shots include ones of the ship, on deck and in the bunks; people waving from the docks; an unidentified motorcade; and men carrying small Christmas trees onto a ship—a shot from the Antarctic shows one of these trees ‘planted’ outside a tent.
Of interest to Naval historians and researchers of Deep Freeze and the IGY.
Details
Title
Photo Album Documenting Operation Deep Freeze I, the US Mission to Antarctica in Preparation for the 1957–1958 International Geophysical Year
Author
[US Navy – Antarctica – History of Science – Cold War Era] Unknown Photographer
Binding
Photo album measuring 12 ½ x 9 inches containing 171 photos, mainly 3 ½ x 3 ½ inches, with some 4 ½ x 3 ½ inches and one 8
Condition
Very Good
Publisher
Antarctica and others
Date
1956