Hands-on activities help visitors of all ages understand what it would have been like to travel to the coldest place on Earth 100 years ago, as well as what it is like to conduct research there today. Visitors choose a character card featuring a member of one of the expeditionary teams and, while moving through the show, find clues about the character's experiences on the way to the South Pole. With the aid of touch-screen exhibits, visitors explore photographs, drawings, and documents relating to the expeditions and the men who went south with Scott and Amundsen.
The section on modern scientific studies in the Antarctic opens with a stunning video projection showing the rich underwater life that dwells in Antarctic waters. An interactive digital map of Antarctica allows visitors to scan the land that lies underneath the ice and to visualize ocean currents and weather systems. Visitors also take a fun personality test to imagine how they might fare in an extreme environment over long periods of isolation.
Additional interactive exhibits and hands-on activities reveal what scientists are learning about Antarctica's ancient past and how people manage to live year-round in this forbidding yet fascinating place.
At the entrance to the exhibition Race to the End of the Earth, visitors enter an immersive soundscape simulating the icy, windswept landscape of Antarctica, complete with life-sized penguins.
© AMNH/D. Finnin
Antarctica interactive map:
This interactive map of Antarctica scans what lies below the ice and highlights ocean currents and weather systems.
© AMNH/D. Finnin
Personality test:
Visitors can take a personality test inspired by those used for actual expeditions to imagine how they might fare in an extreme environment over long periods of isolation. The test includes questions such as, “Research stations have energy and water conservation programs. Could you get by with only two, two-minute showers a week?” and “Winds of up to 185 mph (300 kph) have been clocked in Antarctica, and the sound is intense. Would this bother you?”
© AMNH/D. Finnin
Close-up of sledge in underground re-creation:
Sledges were crucial means of transport for polar explorers and carried the men’s food, fuel, clothing, and sleeping bags.
© AMNH/D. Finnin
Amundsen’s underground workrooms:
During the winter, Amundsen’s men dug an extensive network of tunnels and rooms under the snow, including a bathroom and even a sauna. This life-sized re-creation shows an underground workroom in which his crew was able to work on their expedition gear away from the extreme wind and cold outside.
© AMNH/D. Finnin
Scott’s polar home:
Captain Scott had to bring nearly everything he needed with him to the ice, including a pre-fabricated wooden hut to use as home base. Crowded into the hut’s single spacious room were scientific laboratories, a kitchen, darkroom, and long dining tables, along with a player piano and bunks for the men. Heated by a coal stove, indoor temperatures hovered at 50 °F (10 °C), balmy by Antarctic standards. This life-sized re-creation includes Scott’s study and three of his crew member’s living spaces.
© AMNH/D. Finnin
Prefabricated igloo:
This prefabricated igloo is a light and aerodynamic portable hut nicknamed “The Apple” that can be transported by helicopters and used in Antarctica as sleeping quarters, laboratory space, or emergency weather shelter. When in place, the structures are propped up with two-by-fours and anchored to the ground with cables so they cannot be flipped by the wind.
© AMNH/D. Finnin
Emperor penguin diorama:
This diorama features “the worst journey in the world,” Apsley Cherry-Garrard’s evocative name for the dangerous five-week expedition he undertook with Dr. Edward Wilson and Birdie Bowers in the heart of the austral winter of 1911. Their sole purpose was to collect eggs of the largest of all penguin species alive today, the emperor penguin, for scientific study and analysis.
© AMNH/D. Finnin
