Nils Otto Gustaf Nordenskjld

Nils Otto Gustaf Nordenskjld was born on 6 December 1869 at Sjgle in the province of Smaland, Sweden. His uncle, Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskjld, led the Swedish Northeast Passage expedition from Karlskrona, 1878-1880, the first expedition to navigate the Northeast Passage. Niles Nordenskjld gained a doctorate in geology, lecturing at Uppsala University. His first journey to the Southern hemisphere was as leader of the Swedish geological expedition to Tierra del Fuego from 1895 to 1897. In 1898, he took part in an expedition to Alaska and was a geologist on the Danish East Greenland expedition under Carl Amdrup in 1900.

Nordenskjld had spent over four years in lobbying and fund-raising for his own Antarctic expedition, with private benefactors eventually providing most of the money for his Swedish South Polar Expedition, 1901-1903.

He and five companions landed at Snow Hill Island in February 1902 after the expedition ship Antarctic met impenetrable pack ice trying to reach King Oscar II Coast. The party explored widely and in October 1902, Nordenskjld and two companions took a small team of dogs on a sledging journey to 66.05°south on the east side of the peninsula, collecting rock samples. The Snow Hill group was forced to spend a second winter on the island unaware that Antarctic had been crushed in pack ice in 1903 and that the ship's company had been wintering on Paulet Island. An Argentine naval vessel Uruguay eventually rescued both parties in November 1903. Despite the difficulties of the expedition, the Swedish scientists produced exceptional results, publishing a series of reports that set a pattern for later expeditions to follow.

In 1905, Nordenskjld was promoted to the chair of geography at the University of Gothenburg, a post he held until 1928. In 1908, he established the Geographical Society of Gothenburg and in 1923, founded and became the first director of the Gothenburg School of Economics, now part of the University. In 1909, he went to Greenland for geological and glaciological work, and in 1914, together with British scientists, was preparing an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula when the outbreak of the First World War put an end to the plans. He visited Peru and Southern Chile from 1920 to 1921. He died on 2 June 1928.

Published work, Antarctica, or two years amongst the ice of the South Pole by Nils Otto Gustaf Nordenskjld and Johan Gunnar Andersson, C.Hurst and Co. London (1977) SPRI Library Shelf (7)91(08)[1901-1904 Nordenskjld]

From the guide to the Nils Otto Nordenskjld collection, 1901-1912, (Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge)