A Search for Value:

An Analysis of Popular Interest in Byrd's First Antarctic Expedition, 1928-30

Raimund E. Goerler and Laura J. Kissel (Ohio State University/ Byrd Polar Research Center)

Among the massive--more than five hundred cubic feet--of documentation of the career of polar explorer Richard E. Byrd is one particularly extra-ordinary box that has never been used by any researcher. It contains essays submitted in a contest sponsored by Byrd's publisher G.P. Putnam's Son's, who challenged contestants to write on the theme of "The Value, to the Civilized World, of The Byrd Antarctic Expedition." This paper has five parts: The Challenge to Scholarship; The Contest; The Methodology of the Study; The Results of the Study; and The Conclusions.

The Challenge to Scholarship:

Before the modern era of governmentally financed exploration, most polar explorers in the United States depended upon popular interest to support their enterprises. Typically, explorers found wealthy patrons for whom to name geographical features, whether discovered or imagined. Robert Peary, for example, had his Peary Arctic Club of well-heeled enthusiasts. Lectures at scientific societies, fairs, and clubs both preceded and followed polar exploration, sometimes complete with dogs and furs. All of the explorers expected to write about their adventures and accomplishments and to draw royalties and financial advances from publishers of books and newspapers. Indeed, so important was publication to the financial success of polar exploration that some explorers forbade other members of their expeditions to publish their accounts until the leader had a chance to raise money both to pay debts and to seed the next expedition. The greatest controversy in the history of exploration--the dispute between Dr. Frederick Cook and Commander Robert Peary about who reached the North Pole first--may have begun as a conflict of personalities when Peary forbade Cook from publishing an article about the Eskimos whom Cook had studied while a member of Peary's expedition in 1898.

No explorer did more to raise public interest in polar exploration than Richard Byrd. Like other explorers before him, Byrd began by attracting the attention of the wealthy. John D. Rockefeller, Edsel Ford--the aristocracy of money in the United States--donated from $25,000 to $5,000 to enable Byrd to buy an airplane, rent a ship, and outfit an expedition to fly to the North Pole in 1926. At the same time, Byrd shrewdly negotiated advances from the New York Times for exclusive stories and a contract with David Lawrence to guarantee financial support in exchange for accounts to be sold to newspapers, regardless of whether Byrd reached the North Pole or not. Another deal with Pathe Films provided for that company to take newsreel films of the progress of the expedition in exchange for cash and royalties.

Why did people take such an interest in polar exploration as to part with their own money? Recently, scholars of polar exploration have offered several answers. In The Myth of the Explorer: The Press, Sensationalism, and Geographical Discovery, Beau Riffenburgh linked the progress of polar exploration with technological advances in printing and changes in journalism. Newspaper owners and explorers developed a symbiotic relationship in which newspapers stoked public interest while explorers provided stories.. The advent of machine powered presses and the manufacture of of cheap paper from wood pulp made possible the inexpensive and daily newspapers and created a demand among journalists for more stories, especially ones of adventure and sensationalism. These polar explorers were only too happy to provide and at a price. By the 1880's, according to Riffenburgh, most polar explorers had established links with major newspapers.

Recently, F. Spufford took another point of view. In I May Be some Time: Ice and the English Imagination, Spufford maintained that popular interest in polar exploration preceded the modernization of journalism. Based principally on literary works, Spufford showed how literary figures such as Charles Dickens, ? Coleridge, and Herman Melville and Charlotte Bronte adapted accounts of polar expeditions into their novels. The narratives of polar explorers fired literary imaginations and provided metaphors and examples of social virtues in cooperation, loyalty and endurance in the face of suffering.

In Gender on Ice: American Ideology of Polar Exploration, Lisa Bloom offered a third explanation. According to Bloom, popular interest in polar exploration rested on several cultural themes distinctive to the United States: nationalism or planting the flag of the United States in distant places before other nations could do so; faith in the progress of technology in conquering nature, a faith that would not tolerate a noble failure as virtuous; and a pre-occupation with masculinity. Thus, males in offices, factories, and comfortable parlors eagerly read the accounts of male polar explorers who proved that traditional male virtues of courage and aggressiveness in the face of adversity still survived in modern times.

All of these interpretations of popular interest suffer from the same problem: they begin with published sources and infer from the publications what the people who read the books or newspapers or magazines found important. The readers themselves are silent for the most part because they did not record for posterity and for scholars their personal reactions to the published accounts of polar exploration.

The Contest:

In 1930, G.P. Putnam's Sons published Little America: Aerial Exploration in the Antarctic and the Flight to the South Pole. This was the official account of Byrd's expedition to Antarctica from 1928 to 1930. Although Richard Evenly Byrd was credited as the author, the book was also the work of Byrd's publicist and professional writer Charles Murphy. Murphy was not on the expedition but fashioned newspaper accounts into a draft, which he shared with Byrd. Together with Dr. Larry Gould who added a chapter about the geological expedition, they created a monograph of 422 pages.

As a commercial press, Putnam's had to make a profit from the book. Even before the expedition to Antarctica, Byrd was a celebrity and a national hero. His flight to the North Pole in 1926 and his Trans-Atlantic flight in 1927, the third after Lindbergh, resulted in two ticker-tape parades and a successful book, Skyward. The publication of Byrd's new book, however, occurred during the Great Depression. Extra-ordinary efforts seemed both necessary and appropriate to make certain that the public would be interested enough to buy the book in a climate of financial uncertainty and economic hardship.

Putnam's designed a contest as one of its marketing strategies. It invited readers to submit letters, not to exceed two hundred a fifty words, on the subject, " The Value, To the Civilized world, of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition." Contestants did not need to focus on any technical aspects of the expedition. Nor would Putnam's judge the letters in accordance with literary merit, form of expression, or rules of punctuation or spelling. According to the printed rules of the contest, "Judgment will be based only upon the value of the idea expressed."

To stoke interest in both the contest and the book, Putnam's promised four prizes, three of them in cash. First prize was $250, second was $100, third was $50. Each of the four winners was to receive a special and limited edition of Little America personally autographed by Byrd himself. Considering that the book itself typically sold for $5 in most stores, the initial purchase price could be a very modest investment for any of the winners. Whether motivated by the prizes or inspired by the book, some 2000 writers entered Putnam's contest.

The Methodology of the Study:

In reviewing the box of letters, the authors of this study engaged in content analysis to answer several questions. Was it possible to develop categories of themes that contestants used in their letters? Typically, the letters contained more than one theme. What themes were cited most frequently? Which were used the least? Did the letters from men differ significantly in thematic content from those written by women? School children also wrote letters. Did these have any distinctive characteristics of themes that differed in frequency from those written by adults?

Reading each of the letters was neither practical nor necessary. From the total volume of letters, the authors developed a random and statistically valid sample. Each of the letters, which had been filed alphabetically by author, received a unique number. A random number generator selected the numbered letters that should be studied. In accordance with guidelines for sampling, the authors read three hundred and twenty of the total number of essays in order to draw conclusions from the sample that were statistically valid for the box of essays.

As a whole, the sample of letters exhibited significant variations especially in length and style. Some were a single page and hand-written; others were typed and two or three pages in length, apparently stretching the limit of two hundred and fifty words imposed by the contest. In most cases, the contestants provided enough of their names to identify gender and sometimes noted their age if they were minors.

Reading a few of the letters led to the identification of twelve categories of themes and the development of a data base in MicroSoft "Access". One theme was nationalism. Typically, writers who used this theme in their essays pointed to Byrd's expedition as planting the flag of the United States in a remote place. As an example, one writer stated "You have brought glory to our nation and the heart of every American is filled with praise and admiration at the mention of your name.....there will always be a lingering in your heart that you have performed a service to you nation that never can be forgotten."⁽¹⁾ Another wrote " He [Byrd] loved his Country (sic) enough to undertake the most dangerous of expeditions, to battle against elements, to plant the flag of the United States some distance further than other pioneers have."⁽²⁾ At least two contestants concluded their essays in a nationalistic manner. One ended by stating "It is with the utmost satisfaction that we of America can point to a citizen of our country and realize that we are doing something that are of world wide importance. Men like Byrd make us proud of our citizenship in a country that produces such great figures in the history of the world."⁽³⁾ Another simply closed with "Best of all, I think that Rear Admiral Byrd's explorations have won for the United States a major portion of the Antarctic."⁽⁴⁾

Another type of theme referred to Byrd's expedition to Antarctica as part of the triumph of man over the forces of nature. As one contestant put it, " You showed clearly that by preparing intelligently and scientifically, there t is no limit to the extent that we may conquer our environment. What a great valuable lesson."⁽⁵⁾ Another envisioned both the advancement of technology and progress toward world peace when he wrote "But the greatest value of all to the civilized world lies in the successful testing of the very civilization which was brought to the hostile wastes at the bottom of the world. The Byrd Antarctic Expedition proved civilization.....Those very tenets to which civilization constantly strives were put to one of history's severest tests, scientifically conducted. Fellowship, social cooperation, loyalty, sacrifice, and the total subjugation of matter to the intelligent mind successfully withstood every bitter, sustained, acid-bathing assault. Those who seek eventual peace on earth and goodwill toward all men see hope in this."⁽⁶⁾

Airplanes were important to Byrd's expedition. In fact, in his previous book Skyward, Byrd argued that flights in dangerous environments served to test and improve the development of the airplane. His flight to the South Pole, as portrayed in his account, served to evidence the usefulness of the airplane in exploration. Many contestants cited the testing of the airplane as one of the expeditions valuable contributions to the civilized world.

Byrd also used radio to communicate with parties in the field parties as well as to relay stories to the New York Times. Contestants also cited the value of the expedition in proving the performance of radio in the most hazardous of environments.

Byrd's expedition was the largest and the most mechanized of any in the history of exploration in Antarctica. On the ice from December of 1929 to February of 1930, the expedition had ample opportunity to develop and test techniques and strategies for exploration. Some of the contestants cited the expedition as valuable to the continued exploration of Antarctica by future explorers.

Historically, economic value has been a traditional incentive for exploration. Most contestants who cited economic value acknowledged that the economic potential of Antarctica would be discovered only in the future. Still one writer noted "Even people who look only for monetary benefits will find full value in your undertaking. Extensive lands were added to the United States. England's monopoly of .25 a barrel on whale oil was broken, saving our men many thousands of dollars every year." To make this point more emphatically, she also noted erroneously that "Gold and other minerals were found."⁽⁷⁾

Many contestants noted the geographical discoveries by the expedition. They cited the mapping and naming of mountains, coast lines and enhancement of geographical knowledge as a valuable contribution of the expedition.

Byrd himself liked to refer to the expedition as advancing scientific knowledge. Many contestants identified scientific accomplishments, including the gathering of meteorological data, geological investigations, and biological undertakings as valuable contributions of the expeditions. From California one contestant wrote "They brought back data of values as yet barely estimated--values touch daily life most closely in matters of radiology, aeronautics, geography, weather wisdom and ranging wide in remoter fields of science; and they raised questions enough to send a dozen explorers south for lifetimes of investigation."⁽⁸⁾ Rather than list each science individually, this study consolidated all references to scientific knowledge as one theme.

Some contestants, while citing the gathering of data for individual sciences, also referred to the progress of science through Byrd's expedition as leading to a better understanding of the globe. Although "global ecology" and "global systems" were not terms common to the era, the authors of this study created the category "Global Understanding" as representing this theme. Sometimes, Global Understanding also meant the general interest in understanding the forces and history of nature and could even be linked to world peace in a quest for global understanding.

Byrd's expedition produced a book, numerous articles in magazines and newspapers, and an award-winning motion picture film, "With Byrd at the South Pole." Two camera men from Paramount accompanied Byrd and recorded the daily life and drama of the expedition. Some of the contestants cited these as valuable contributions of the expedition to civilization. As one writer declared, " The highest achievement of the expedition was the recording made by the cameras. The showing of these pictures at the theaters did more to enlighten the minds of the working people than any number of volumes. No longer would poems be the only place where 'oceans of ice' could be found; nor would a temperature so cold that one could hear one's breath freeze be the invention of a modern Munchausen.".⁽⁹⁾ Even today, the film, which is now available as a video-tape, still impresses audiences, especially school children.

Many contestants found Byrd's expedition to Antarctica to be inspirational. They were impressed and inspired by Byrd's organizational ability in overcoming the logistical obstacles of assembling the largest party in the history of Antarctic exploration and in directing their work safely in a hostile environment. Again and again, readers cited the importance of Byrd in pulling together his men and in instilling in each a willingness to further the work of the expedition. Many writers pointed to Byrd's leadership and accomplishment as a model for the age. One boys scout, who could not spell "Antarctica" began his essay "I think the 'Byrd Antartic (sic) Expedition' was of value to the civilized world more as an inspirational medium than by any findings of scientific determinations that might have resulted from their two years in the Antarctic."⁽¹⁰⁾ Another observed philosophically, "Every human being longs for the expression not only of his ordinary self but also of his rarer desires and impulses. He longs to escape with the latter from the humdrum daily affairs and the monotony of his usual surroundings....This, then is one of the most valuable features of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition. It has provided through the radio messages printed in The New York Times, through the move "With Byrd at the South Pole", and through Little America, a great and thrilling adventure for many."⁽¹¹⁾

Occasionally writers who found inspiration in Byrd's expedition referred to an uplifting of the modern era. One noted "Time and again we hear the cry 'Everything has been invented, the entire world has been explored, what chance is there for doing or finding new things?' The Byrd expedition is the answer to these people. With this attitude that we can always go forward, the world may hope for my physical results in the future."⁽¹²⁾ Another observed "When we hear so much of the 'practical' side of life and scorn is heaped upon the idealist and dreamer and only those things which reap a financial return are deemed successful, how thrilling was the flight itself."⁽¹³⁾

Writers who developed the theme of inspiration sometimes went to excess. As an example, a coffee broker in Los Angeles wrote "The star that led the Magi across their deserts and the star that led Byrd to the nether pole are not so different one from another as one might at first suppose. The submergence of self into an ideal, the immolation of personal interests and the sacrifice of human comforts that formed the spiritual basis of this great adventure are of larger and more permanent value to our modern civilization than the discoveries of icy lands and their secrets."⁽¹⁴⁾

One of the members of Byrd's expedition was a boy scout, Paul Siple, who was selected in a national competition among scouts. The competition and selection succeeded in drawing much publicity to the expedition. It also persuaded some contestants that the chief value of the expedition was as an inspiration to youth. One boy scout noted "Admiral Byrd, himself an Honorary member of the Boy Scouts of America has done more to fire the enthusiasm of the Boy Scouts, and in fact all boys, than any living man today." ⁽¹⁵⁾

Concerns for the next generation moved one contestant to write, "Youth's hazardous journey on the glamours sea of adolescence is today, more than ever, fraught with skulking dangers. The Crime Wave rolls highest to engulf buoyant Youth. Communism rears a horned head to roar confusing directions to unwary craft. Prohibition, while attempting nobly to shield, often but incites. Befogged, thus, by the strange elements encountered, Youth easily loses its way and is lost. Never before in the history of the world has Youth more needed a blazing beacon to make clear its course. Never has beacon been brighter. An heroic gesture of undaunted courage, of superb sacrifice, of glorified adventure shines on the World's horizon to beckon and guide to safety the precious craft: Youth."⁽¹⁶⁾

Occasionally, but not very often, the authors of this study encountered themes that did not fit into the major categories. As an example, one contestant claimed that Byrd's expedition proved the existence of God and the truth of Christianity: "By the Bible we learn that God created the world....How could man not believe in the Christian religion and a supreme being when he has seen these marvelous things that God has created or has read the data furnished by you in Little America? Therefore a firmer foundation is laid (upon) which Christian religion may safely rest."⁽¹⁷⁾ This and twelve more letters--only 4.1% of the total sample-- constituted the "other" category.

THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY

Of the total of 320 letters sampled, those written by women (137 or 42.8%) nearly equaled the number by men (145 or 45.3%). If polar exploration appealed distinctly to males more than females, as suggested by Lisa Bloom, it is not proven by this study. However, Byrd as a celebrity and as a handsome and photogenic man had many female admirers. Indeed, Byrd was voted one of the handsomest men of his day. So, the data does not necessarily prove Bloom's hypothesis wrong.

The absence of references explicitly to masculinity as a theme in the letters is noteworthy. No one seemed to cite masculine strength as important in conquering nature. However, the emphasis of the expedition and of many of the contestants was on technology rather than on physical strength. Intelligence, machines and organizational skills mattered more than physical strength in this expedition.

By far the most frequent of themes was spiritual uplift and moral example. Seventy per cent of the sample expressed this idea. If one were to add the closely related theme of inspiration for the next generation, the total would have been 90.6 per cent. Two factors may explain the overwhelming popularity of these themes. First, the writers lived in a time of extra-ordinary social uncertainty and financial despair. Heroic figures such as Byrd inspired confidence that traditional values of dedication to achievement , loyalty to mission and team, faith in technology, and superior organizational skills could overcome great obstacles. Second, previous public image of Byrd as the hero of the North Pole and the third to fly across the Atlantic--an image that Byrd himself recognized and cultivated in what he termed "the hero business"-- served to render the accomplishments in Antarctica even more inspirational because they had been done by a hero.⁽¹⁸⁾

The second most popular theme was scientific knowledge. Byrd had maintained that his expedition was to advance scientific knowledge. The fact that he selected Lawrence Gould, a scientist as his second-in-command of the expedition, the number of scientists among the forty-two who wintered over, and the detailed discussions of laboratories and equipment in Byrd's book served to tune readers to scientific accomplishments as a major contribution to civilization.

Geographic discovery ranked third, for obvious reasons.

At the other end of the scale of total frequency, some of the statistics merit comment. At the bottom, was the theme of "Man Over Nature", with only 10% of the sample. However, this may be the result of the design of the categories. If radio and airplanes, both man-made inventions used to extend man's knowledge over nature, were included with "Man Over Nature" the total would rise to 81.2%. That the importance of radio and airplanes should be cited is not surprising, given Bird's association with previous accomplishments with airplanes, the triumph of the flight over the North Pole, and the prominence of both radio and airplanes in the book Little America, as evidenced by its index.⁽¹⁹⁾

Global understanding also ranked low in the total frequencies. In retrospect, this may have been a theme difficult for the contestants to articulate. Certainly, its expression seemed imprecise to the authors of this study and appeared, at times, to seem close to scientific knowledge. At the same time, however, global understanding seemed to be more than the gathering and interpretation of scientific data and appeared to touch upon religious themes and ones of world peace.

Nationalism and economic value ranked only ninth and tenth respectively in the list of twelve. This is not surprising. Those writers who did mention economic value were either speculative in that more time would be needed to explore the mineral wealth, or vague, such as the writer who thought Antarctica was a place to park surplus population, or inaccurate (including the contestant who alleged that Byrd's expedition had found gold). The lack of knowledge of the economic value of Antarctica may have lowered the theme of nationalism. Aside from planting the stars and stripes in uninhabitable areas , contestants did find it difficult to enumerate exactly what advantages and assets the United States as a nation gained from Antarctica.

More surprising was the relatively small number of contestants who referred in their letters to Byrd's impact on continuing exploration. Traditionally, historians have referred to Byrd's expeditions as heralding the end of the heroic age and the advent of the modern and mechanical age of exploration in Antarctica. Yet, only 21.3 per cent of contestants mentioned continuing exploration as a theme. This is surprising when considering the number who cited scientific knowledge as an accomplishment. Did they not realize that the opening of Antarctica by airplane made a continent available as a laboratory for science? The public may not have viewed Antarctica as a continuing project, a troublesome thought for someone like Byrd who planned to undertake another expedition to Antarctica and eventually made exploration his life's work.

Men and women did not differ significantly in the relative frequency of themes cited when divided by gender. Both sexes were identical in ranking spiritual uplift, scientific knowledge, geographic discovery, air plane, and radio as the five most important contributions to civilization by Byrd's expedition. A greater percentage of females than males (27 % to 15%) valued the expedition as an inspiration to the younger generation, a difference readily explained by the higher social value traditionally placed upon women in nurturing the young. Otherwise, the results for men and for women were remarkably similar.

Five of the contestants did win prizes, including one awarded in for the best letter written by a minor. The criteria for selecting the winners is not documented, and Byrd himself was not involved in the voting. Generally speaking, the winning letters had themes that paralleled in frequency those cited by the sample as a whole. Each of the five referred to spiritual uplift as a theme, the only one to achieve unanimity. Three of the five noted science and airplanes. None of the winners mentioned the triumph of man over nature or the impact upon continuing exploration.

CONCLUSIONS:

A study of this kind does have distinct limits as an analysis of popular interest in the exploration of Antarctica. It focuses only upon one explorer, Richard Byrd and ignores Lincoln Ellsworth, Sir Hubert Wilkins, and other contemporaries. The analysis is upon only the first of Byrd's expeditions, even though Byrd led or was associated with five expeditions to Antarctica. Finally, the study concerns only those people who were interested enough in Byrd or Antarctica to purchase or read Byrd's book. Therefore, any findings must be considered as suggestive, perhaps speculative, but not conclusive.

These limits aside, if Richard Byrd had found time to study these essays (Byrd himself was on a lecture tour to promote his book while these essays were being reviewed), the results would have been alarming to him. The frequency with which the contestants cited spiritual uplift as an accomplishments would have been taxing to any explorer. How long can an explorer continually inspire readers and supporters by performing heroic deeds and accomplishing the extra-ordinary without exposing himself to extraordinary risk? In Byrd's second expedition, the hero almost died while wintering alone in a hut in the interior of Antarctica.

If one can continue to speculate about Byrd's reactions to the essays, then the low scores for the impact upon continuing exploration must have been worrisome also. Byrd's second expedition, from 1933-35 was the last to depend upon popular support and private donations alone. The U.S. Antarctic Expedition ? that Byrd led from 1939 to 1940? was financed partly by the United States government and partly from moneys that Byrd himself had raised. Byrd's expeditions heralded not only the era of technological exploration but also of exploration by the tax payer and by governmental bureaucracy.

Although the findings are tentative, this study has given voice to those who were relatively speechless in previous analyses by historians. Because of the contest organized by G.P. Putnam's Sons, a body of documentation exists that was created by ordinary people, not by journalists and novelists. A similar approach, can and should be undertaken of the letters submitted by the public in praise of exploration of space and such more recent heroes as John Glenn.

1. Katherine A. Thomas to Admiral Richard Byrd, February 17, 1931

2. J.L. Gaisser to G.P. Putnam's sons, February 12, 1931.

3. Jonah Goldberg, "The Value to the Civilized world of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition," undated.

4. Grant Dibblee to Byrd Contest Letter Editor, February 25, 1931.

5. Vincent Lindblom to Admiral E. Byrd, Februrary 25, 1931.

6. Allison W. Ind to Byrd Prize Letter Contest Editor, undated

7. Emily M. Dunne to Admiral Byrd, February 29, 1931.

8. Wilmetta Curtis to G.P. Putnam's sons" February 19, 1931.

9. Jonah Goldberg, "The Value to the Civilized world of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition,"

10. Harold M. Crowther to G.P. Putnam's Sons, January 30, 1931.

11. Alice G. Fairbanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons, undated.

12. Irvin S. Dagen, "The Value, to the Civilized World, of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition," February 3, 1931.

13. Alice G. Fairbanks to G.P. Putnam's Sons, undated.

14. James L. Duff to G.P. Putnam's Sons, January 16, 1931

15. Harold M. Crowther to G.P. Putnam's Sons, January 30, 1931.

16. Genevieve A. Higgins, "The Value to the Civilized World of the Byrd Antarctic Expedition."

17. William Palmer Long to Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, February 24, 1931.

18. Skyward?

19. Richard Byrd, Little America, pp. 417,421.