Explorer Stories

Living in Antarctica is an extreme experience. How do you survive the utter cold and feeling of complete isolation from the rest of the world? Max Robertson is intrigued by… Read More »Antarctic Life: then and now

Today is Antarctica Day 2019! Sixty years ago, on 1st December 1959, the Antarctica Treaty was signed to protect this vast continent’s environment and to promote international scientific cooperation. Fifty-four… Read More »Discovering Antarctica: where the sea foams like arrowroot

One hundred years ago, shortly after the end of World War I, Royal Flying Corp Airman Joseph William Bowler made a visit to sites of ancient Egypt while stationed there.… Read More »In the Land of the Pharoahs: A Soldier’s Tour

We seldom get the opportunity to hear women’s voices in these stories about nineteenth century archaeology and science. Nelly Lubbock, John’s first wife, provides a rare glimpse into her travels… Read More »John Lubbock’s Collection: A Scandinavian Adventure

John Lubbock shared a love for prehistoric archaeology with many colleagues across Europe, in the days before photography and the internet. Visiting archaeological sites discovered, talking with those excavating them,… Read More »John Lubbock’s Collection: The Swiss Lake Villages

September’s Object Stories are dedicated to our culture and science colleagues working across Europe, and internationally. In 1868, Sir John Lubbock was the President of the Organising Committee for the… Read More »Darwin’s Apprentice: The Collections of John Lubbock, 1st Lord Avebury

Alfred Russel Wallace was thirty-one years old when he arrived in Singapore on 19th April 1854. He had come to collect natural history specimens for sale in London, and to… Read More »In Search of Paradise: Wallace’s Collecting Journey in Dorey, New Guinea

Charles Darwin made three excursions into the waters of Tierra del Fuego and the Magellan Strait on HMS Beagle. In the Antarctic summer of 1832-3, the ship’s company surveyed the… Read More »Charles Darwin’s Collecting Journey in Tierra del Fuego