Arctic Fever
When and Where
Description
Exhibit dates: January 26 to April 24, 2026
The Arctic is feverishly topical now because of the pressures of climate change on the north circumpolar ecosystem and its Indigenous communities. The phrase 'Arctic fever', however, arose in the 19th century to describe the unquenchable passion for Arctic exploration. The exhibition brings these urgencies together through visual and textual accounts of the circumpolar Arctic in the nineteenth century, including Western discoveries, fictive literature, displays of technology, and descriptions of panoramic spectacles. Ephemera, including newspapers and illustrated playbills, are featured, as are Indigenous perspectives on Arctic travel and life.
Arctic Fever is co-curated by Mark A. Cheetham, University of Toronto, and Isabelle Gapp, University of Aberdeen.
Arctic Fever marks the culmination of Cheetham’s 2019-20 12-Month JHI Faculty Research Fellowship. The exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring essays on 19th-century Arctic voyaging by 18 scholars.
The exhibition runs from January 26 to April 24, 2026 at The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library and online.
More information to come.