Parkin correspondence

• MS 101/72;D Letter to William Speirs Bruce, 31 May 1910 [Regarding emperor penguin egg collected during French Naval Expedition, 1837-1840 (d'Urville)] holograph

To explore the South Pacific islands and the Southern Ocean, with mapping magnetic variation an important objective. He sailed south with two corvettes, Astrolabe and Zelee visiting the South Orkney Islands and the South Shetland Islands. In February 1838, he mistakenly reported Terre Louis-Phillippe as forming an island north of the Antarctic Peninsula (Trinity Peninsula is actually part of the Antarctic continent), and Terre Joinville, considered by him as a single land mass but now known to consist of several islands. In January 1840, he discovered and claimed for France a sector of the Antarctic mainland that he named Terre Adelie for his wife.

Chronological

The Institute holds archival collections for William Speirs Bruce and the leader of the French Naval Expedition Durmot d'Urville