When I entered the field of conservation I hoped that the position would afford me the opportunity to travel for work. My travel, moving a couple of cities and the occasional courier or conference trip, has been gratifying but rather mundane. Thus, I have marveled at the conservators who really seem to seize the amazing opportunities that our work sometimes affords and it has been a vicarious thrill to read the Antarctic Conservation blog posts of the conservators of the Antarctic Heritage Trust who are conserving 4 Antarctic explorers’ huts, including those used by Scott and Shackleton on their expeditions to Antarctica. These conservators work throughout the year on the frozen continent, living in one of the most hostile environments on Earth.
This project has also resulted in some interesting conservation issues. If you are a whiskey lover then you will be particularly interested in the New York Times Magazine article of July 21, 2011 by Charles McGrath Spirits of the South Poll. In February 2007 members of the preservation team came across three cases of Scotch frozen in the permafrost that were part of Ernest Shackleton’s 1907 Nimrod expedition. The Antarctic Heritage Trust, after much negotiation, allowed several bottles to be thawed out and brought to Scotland for study and analysis. The article describes that the whiskey obsessed
likened the find to Howard Carter’s stumbling into the tomb of Tutanhkhamen. Scotch this old is a great scarcity, but what kind of shape was it in? Had it been preserved in the subzero cold – mummified, in effect – or had it gone bad, picking up notes of blubber, mildewed seal skin and dried penguin dung?
Read the rest the NYTimes article to find out!