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Abstract
Cows and Antarctica rarely exist in the same sentence, let alone the same region. In 1933 Admiral Richard Byrd changed that, when he took three golden Guernseys to Little America II. These Antarctic cows may have appeared as little more than a footnote in Antarctic history, but their story is revealing of the commercial and media context of Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition. Byrd was a master of what he called “this hero business”, and his second expedition was thoroughly documented via print, film and radio – in the case of the latter, in real time. His decision to take a dairy south was one way of ensuring ongoing media attention. This paper chronicles the cows’ journey to and from Antarctica, placing their story within the context of exploration and sponsorship, in order to highlight a novel way Antarctica has been used as a tool in a commercial context.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole.
2 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 2.
3 American Guernsey Cattle Club, Polar Guernseys Withstand First Test.
4 Larson, An Empire of Ice, 45.
5 Shackleton’s Nimrod expedition had a deal with the Daily Mail, and Scott’s Terra Nova expedition had an exclusive contract with the Central News Agency, for instance. Biggar, Escape to the Pole, 81.
6 Byrd dedicated a chapter in his 1928 book Skyward to “This Hero Business.”
7 Matuozzi, “Richard Byrd, Polar Exploration,” 234.
8 Perry, “CBS’s Long Distance Radio Experiment,” 81.
9 Glasberg, Antarctica as Cultural Critique, xix.
10 Here, media is used to refer to the news media specifically. The term “polar media” has also been used to situate “representations of the Arctic and Antarctic as a topic in media history,” in Peter Krapp’s examination of Antarctic literature and film. Krapp, “POLAR MEDIA,” 831–845.
11 Leane, “Polar Newspapers as Colonising Fictions,” 25–44.
12 Leane, “The Polar Press,” 31–35.
13 Riffenburgh, The Myth of the Explorer, 3.
14 Riffenburgh, 5.
15 Matuozzi, 216.
16 Maynard, Wings of Ice, 1.
17 Clancy, Manning and Brolsma, “Antarctica- Wings over the Continent,” 173.
18 Nasht, The Last Great Explorer, 183.
19 Rodgers, “Richard E. Byrd’s First Antarctic Expedition,” 158.
20 Nasht, The Last Great Explorer, 177.
21 Nasht, The Last Great Explorer, 177.
22 Rodgers, “Richard E. Byrd’s First Antarctic Expedition,” 167. The return flight took 18 h 41 min, and the Pole was reached at 1:14 am.
23 Rodgers, “Richard E. Byrd’s First Antarctic Expedition,” 167. President Hoover signed the measure promoting Byrd on 21 December 1929.
24 Rose, “Exploring a Secret Land,” 191.
25 Matuozzi, “Richard Byrd, Polar Exploration, and the Media,” 225.
26 Rodgers, “Richard E. Byrd’s First Antarctic Expedition,” 172.
27 Matuozzi, “Richard Byrd, Polar Exploration, and the Media,” 234.
28 Matuozzi, “Richard Byrd, Polar Exploration, and the Media,” 235.
29 Under the advice of Ralph Starr Butler, General Foods underwrote the cost of Byrd’s expedition. These radio dispatches also offered the chance for the General Food Company to promote their Grape Nuts Cereal, which was the official sponsor of the radio broadcasts. Wood, “A pioneer in Marketing,” 69.
30 Matuozzi, “Richard Byrd, Polar Exploration, and the Media,” 226.
31 As quoted in Matuozzi, “Richard Byrd, Polar Exploration, and the Media,” 230.
32 A film created by Pamela Theodotou from archival film material collected during Byrd’s expeditions, entitled “Byrd 1933: Films from the Discovery Lecture Series,” was released in 2015.
33 Matuozzi, “Richard Byrd, Polar Exploration, and the Media,” 216.
34 Byrd, Discovery, 12.
35 Byrd, Discovery, 10.
36 Day, Antarctica: A Biography: Byrd was alone from 28 March until 11 August, 1934.
37 Byrd, Alone: The Classic Polar Adventure.
38 Byrd, Discovery, 10.
39 “Guernsey Cows Stand Polar Trip in Good Shape,” 6.
40 Polar Guernseys Withstand First Test, 2.
41 Polar Guernseys Withstand First Test, 2.
42 Polar Guernseys Withstand First Test, 3.
43 Letter from Elsworth Bunce to C.L. Burlingham. It was decided at Norfolk to keep the cows on board for the entire expedition.
44 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 13.
45 “William Horlick with Admiral Byrd,” 1.
46 A modern day link to Antarctica was reprised when Horlick’s became the Official Hot Drink Supplier to the 2013 “Walking with the Wounded” expedition to the South Pole.
47 “Horlick Mountains.”
48 Horlicks, “Our Story.”
49 Byrd and Poulter, The Romance of Antarctic Adventure. The unpaginated booklet features a Horlicks advertisement.
50 Hurley, South with Endurance, 58.
51 Ponies and dogs, as used by Heroic Era explorers Amundsen, Scott and Shakleton, fall into this category.
52 Headland, “History of exotic terrestrial mammals,” 125.
53 “Enderby Island Cattle.”
54 For discussion on the relocation of reindeer to South Georgia, see Roberts and Jørgensen “Animals as instruments of Norwegian imperial authority in the interwar Arctic” (2016).
55 Headland, “History of exotic terrestrial mammals,” 125.
56 “Cox, Carpenter, Antarctic’s 1st Milkman.”
57 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 6.
58 Bunce and Queripal travelled with the cows from Boston to New Jersey. Cox, “Dairying in Little America,” 500. Queripal travelled on to Nofolk – Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 7.
59 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 12.
60 Leroy Clark, Telegraph Message to Elsworth Bunce. 28 October, 1933. The sea sick cows also feature in Eileen Spinelli’s 2004 picture book Something to Tell the Grandcows.
61 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole.
62 Clark, Telegraph Message to Elsworth Bunce. 28 October, 1933.
63 Clark, Telegraph Message to Elsworth Bunce. November 1933.
64 Cox, “Dairying in Little America,” 501.
65 Schulz, A 1940s Monadnock Childhood, 32.
66 “South Pole Guernseys All Okay.”
67 Polar Guernseys Withstand First Test, 2. The expeditioners had a penchant for puns: should the calf have been a heifer, it would have been called “Lucille” “because of the many loose seals in Little America.”
68 Clark, Telegraph Message to Elsworth Bunce. December 21,1933. Leroy sent a telegram advising Bunce that the new calf weighed 75 lb, and was nursing thirty minutes after being born.
69 Cox, “Dairying in Little America,” 500.
70 “South Pole Guernseys All Okay.” Iceberg was born 247 miles north of the polar circle.
71 “Iceberg, bull calf, born on board ship 247 miles north of Antarctic circle”.
72 Diary Farmers of America, “80th Anniversary of a Cow Milked.”
73 Day, Antarctica: A Biography, 288. Ellsworth was another pioneer of Antarctic flight, and planned to fly across the continent.
74 “Iceberg, bull calf, born.”
75 “Iceberg, bull calf, born.”
76 “Iceberg, bull calf, born.”
77 “South Pole Guernseys All Okay.”
78 Cox, “Dairying in Little America,” 514.
79 “Byrd’s cows and calf taken to base; Klondike and Iceberg carried by tractor.”
80 “Byrd’s cows and calf taken to base.”
81 Polar Guernseys Withstand First Test, 2.
82 Cox, Logbooks. Edward F. Cox Papers. The Ohio State University. Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program. 56.195.
83 “Intense cold does not bother the cows.”
84 Young, With Admiral Byrd’s Second Antarctic Expedition, 33.
85 “Byrd’s Antarctic Cow Challenged.”
86 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 14.
87 Guernsey Cow Barn For Little America.
88 Letter from Elsworth Bunce to C.L. Burlingham.
89 Letter from C.L. Burlingham to Elsworth Bunce.
90 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 2.
91 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 4.
92 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 14.
93 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 8.
94 Byrd, The Romance of Antarctic Adventure.
95 Letter from John McNeil (Byrd Antarctic Expedition II) to Elsworth Bunce (The American Guernsey Cattle Club). April 21, 1934.
96 Admiral Byrd takes Larro to the South Pole, 3.
97 Young, With Admiral Byrd’s Second Antarctic Expedition, 55.
98 “Klondike Nira is Dead.”
99 “Guernseys returning from Little America,” 8.
100 Letter from Elsworth Bunce to C.L. Burlingham.
101 Letter from Elsworth Bunce to C.L. Burlingham.
102 “Byrd’s Antarctic Cow Challenged.”
103 “Byrd’s Bull Spurns First Offer of Grass.”
104 “Byrd Cattle Eat Lunch At Hotel.”
105 “Byrd Cattle Eat Lunch At Hotel.”
106 “Byrd Cattle Eat Lunch At Hotel.”
107 “Antarctic Calf Heard In Moos at Luncheon,” 11.
108 The cows were subsequently returned to their home dairies to live out their days.