Lost on the ice: The 1897 hydrogen balloon attempt to reach the North Pole

— This is a guest post by Josh Levy, a historian in the Manuscript Division. It also appears in the March-April issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. Only traces remain of Salomon August Andrée’s 1897 attempt to reach the North Pole. From a base on the Svalbard archipelago, the engineer and his two companions had hoped to float a hydrogen balloon gracefully over the pole, drop a Swedish flag and claim the glory of first discovery. They were never seen alive again. At first, the public received communications from Andrée directly, delivered by carrier pigeons. Then there were rumors of possible sightings that thinned as time passed, then silence. And then, in 1930, the accidental discovery of the expedition’s wreckage and the scattered remains of the explorers themselves, resting on the tiny island of Kvitøya, about 250 miles east of their launch site. Incredibly, the party of scientists and sealers who found the wreckage also discovered photographic negatives that could still be developed, with notebooks and diaries that could still be read in parts. Among them was what must have been Andrée’s last diary, still resting in his coat’s inside pocket. Collectively they documented the expedition’s downfall, a balloon…

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