Jan Borm is going to give a guest lecture on "French polar presences - the 'La recherche' expeditions of the 1830s in their historical French and international context" at the University of Tartu, Estonia, Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 4.15pm, in the Department of Geography.
This lecture will first provide an overview of French presences in the polar regions, characterised more by individual endeavours than a coherent strategy in the first centuries of polar exploration. The second part will be dedicated to the series of expeditions of the 1830s known by the name of the principal ship involved, called "La Recherche", but also the name of its leader Paul Gaimard. This multi-disciplinary and international enterprise started off with a research and rescue mission to recover the French vessel "La Lilloise", lost off the eastern coast of Greenland in the 1830s, exploring Iceland two years in a row, before an international team was put together to investigate Spitsbergen, Lapland and the Faroe Islands. This series of expeditions will be discussed against the backdrop of intense British polar exploration during the same age.
