Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing administrative materials created before, during, and after the interview.
Accession No. PA.2002.0028: Morton P. Beebe, 2002 September
[identification of item], Morton P. Beebe Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0130, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2023 November; Finding aid written by: David Mezick, 2024 January
As of 2024, Morton P. Beebe (born 1934) is a photographer, journalist and author living in San Francisco, California. He was born in Oakland, California. Beebe became interested in photography at a young age. He enrolled at the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business in 1954 and joined the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC). Beebe graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1956.
Beebe joined the United States Navy in 1956 and attended Naval Flight School. After requesting to be reassigned, he served in public affairs as an Assistant Public Information Officer, eventually going to Antarctica during Operation Deep Freeze III (1957-1958). Beebe worked with journalists at McMurdo Station in Antarctica, providing logistical support and reviewing their writing for accuracy. He also sailed aboard the USS (United States Ship)
After leaving the U.S. Navy, Beebe worked as a photographer and journalist. He joined the Magnum Photos agency, a cooperative of photographers, in 1959. Also that year, Beebe went to the Arctic several times, including to the floating ice island T-3 off the coast of Point Barrow, Alaska, also known as Fletcher’s Ice Island (named after U.S. Air Force Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher). Beebe returned to Antarctica in 1988 to work on a story for
As of 2024, Morton is a fellow of The Explorers Club. He is a former board member of both the Bay Area Travel Writers (BATW) and the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP).
The Morton P. Beebe Oral History, dated 2002-2003, contains audio recordings and administrative information of the interview between Beebe and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on September 15, 2002. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics that Beebe discussed include how he attended and took photographs at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco, California, without permission; his experiences serving in the United States Navy in Antarctica, including hosting two women flight attendants from the first commercial aircraft flight to Antarctica, visiting Mirny Station (a Russian research station), traveling to the South Pole, and his involvement with the coverage of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition; how he met Queen Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother; and how he organized a reception in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the completion of the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958).