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[identification of item], Sir James Clark Ross Letter to Sir John Ross About the Ross Expedition to Antarctica, SPEC.PA.56.5037, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2022 August; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2022 August
Sir James Clark Ross (1800-1862) was an officer in the British Royal Navy and a polar explorer. After serving in the Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, he joined his explorer uncle, Sir John Ross, on an unsuccessful 1818 expedition to the Arctic in search of the Northwest Passage. Ross also took part in four Arctic expeditions led by Sir William Parry, which led to his interest in magnetism. He served under his uncle on a second Arctic expedition from 1829-1833, where he was part of the group that located and planted a flag at the North Magnetic Pole in 1831.
In 1839, Ross was ordered by the British Royal Navy to lead an expedition to Antarctica in order to conduct magnetic research and explore the area. The Ross Expedition took place from September 1839 to September 1843. While they were not able to reach the South Magnetic Pole on the expedition, Ross was able to determine where it was; the expedition also charted 900 kilometers of previously unknown Antarctic coastlines. Following this expedition, he continued serving in the Navy until his death, with his final rank being Rear-Admiral of the Red. Many geographic features in Antarctica and the Arctic are named after Ross, as is a crater on the Moon, a species of Antarctic seal, and a species of gull.
The Sir James Clark Ross Letter to Sir John Ross About the Ross Expedition to Antarctica is a letter from James to his uncle John, also an Arctic explorer. The letter was originally mailed to John with some gold pins that he had asked James to take to the farthest Southern latitude on ice he could reach, and then return; the pins were not present with the letter when it was received by the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program. It also details how James had left a silver case on the ice at that latitude, per his uncle's request. While the letter is undated, based on knowledge of when James had reached the Southernmost latitude on the expedition it dates to sometime between 1841 and 1844.