Frederick George Jackson, Indigenous knowledge, and the “heroic age” of polar exploration

Abstract In 1893, the British explorer Frederick George Jackson travelled in the north of the Russian Empire, where he learned lessons—particularly in the areas of diet, transport, and clothing—from the Nenets and Sami people. I argue that his travels in this area influenced both his subsequent Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition (1894–97) and British Antarctic expeditions in the early 20th century, including those led by Robert F. Scott and Ernest H. Shackleton Studying Jackson’s travels and writings can advance discussions about the role of Indigenous knowledge in British Polar exploration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Based on a new reading of both published and archival materials, the paper also charts some forms of knowledge that Jackson struggled to appropriate—particularly the use of reindeer for transport. In examining his failures, I argue that attempts to write Indigenous contributions into the history of exploration must focus on explorers’ failures as well as their successes—and on forms of Indigenous knowledge that proved difficult to use in other contexts.