Volume CXXXIII, Number 3 September 21, 2001 f

Photo exhibit captures early Arctic
CONOR WILLIAMS
Staff Writer

It's no accident that the Bowdoin Outing Club is the largest student organization on campus. Bowdoin has a long tradition of involvement with and exploration of the natural world, and one of the College's most notable alumni in that field was Donald B. MacMillan, an Arctic explorer often paired in name with another Bowdoin explorer, Robert E. Peary (hence the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum housed in Hubbard Hall at the head of Bowdoin's quad).

Currently, the museum is exhibiting a collection of MacMillan's photographs, entitled "Four Years in the White North: Donald B. MacMillan's Crocker Land Lecture." The exhibit, in the foyer of Hubbard Hall, consists of original prints from the over 5,000 photographs that MacMillan took during his trip to explore the then-uncharted territory of Crocker Land in the northwest Arctic.

A small portion of these were transferred from the original hand-tinted glass lantern slides to prints for the display, and was made possible by a New Century Preservation Grant from the State of Maine. This exhibit illustrates a long established relationship with the region. Said Museum Curator Dr. Genevieve LeMoine, "Bowdoin has a very strong connection with the Arctic."
Robert Peary chronicled his experience with photography during his Arctic exploration:

"My photographic equipment I considered among the most important. A previous experience in the Arctic regions had shown me not only that the popular conceptions of life and work in those regions was entirely erroneous, but that mere pen and ink descriptions failed utterly to convey an idea of the splendor and grandeur of the most savage, the most fascinating portion of the earth's surface." And right he was, in more ways than he chose to list. Not only did his photographs capture the pristine beauty of the Arctic, they also served to capture the imaginations of potential financial backers and helped secure the explorer's legacy. MacMillan toured the country with his slides and discussed each briefly with an adoring public. While the technology of the day made expedition photography both challenging and cumbersome in the harsh Arctic environment, it proved well worth the difficulty.

"One exciting thing about the exhibit is that the texts [captions] are taken directly from MacMillan's lectures," said LeMoine. "What he had to say about these is probably very different than what we might say about them today."
The prints are intriguing both as examples of early color photography as well as windows to the Arctic of MacMillan's day. It was a "silent place, unworn of man," the sort of area that former president Theodore Roosevelt was so devoted to protecting. Even now, nearly ninety years after MacMillan's expedition, the Arctic is still very present in our national consciousness, as evidenced by the controversy over the proposed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"Four Years in the White North: Donald B. MacMillan's Crocker Land Lecture" opens and closes with Hubbard Hall, 9-5 during the week, 10-5 on Saturday, and 2-5 on Sunday, and will run through December.