Race to the End of the Earth December 23, 2010

'Race to the End of the Earth' will recount one of the most stirring tales of Antarctic exploration: the contest to reach the South Pole in 1911-1912. The exhibition will focus on the challenges that the two competing explorers--Norwegian Roald Amundsen and British Royal Navy Captain Robert Falcon Scott--had to face as they undertook their 1,800-mile journeys from the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf to the Pole and back. Nutrition, human endurance, equipment, logistics, and Antarctica's extreme weather conditions were among the many challenges that each team had to face, with outcomes that included both triumph and tragedy. The exhibition also reveals the legacy of these early expeditions by linking it with modern science in the Antarctic and the latest research on this unique continent's distant past and its potential future.