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othmeralia · 2 years

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The Andrée's Arctic Balloon

Photo: Perspektivet Museum

In 1897, a group of Swedish explorers went to the North Pole in an air balloon and disappeared. Their fate would not be known for 30 more years. Tendrils of this story can be found in the letters between Svante Arrhenius and Georg Bredig.

The Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition took place in 1897 in which S. A. Andrée, Knut Frænkel, and Nils Strindberg voyaged by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard in July 1897, the plan was to fly over the north pole, as a way to advance Sweden's place in the race to the north pole.

Svante Arrhenius tells Georg Bredig about his friend Strindberg’s impending expedition in a letter written only months before the expedition.

“Strindberg is supposed to leave his bride and travel with Andrée to the North Pole with the 4th version of the Perpetuum mobile (they leave on May 17th).” - Letter from Svante Arrhenius to Georg Bredig, May 1899

On July 21, 1897, Arrhenius wrote

“One topic of lively discussion here is the polar expedition and how its three explorers are faring. The trip may take a month or maybe even longer. Perhaps they are sitting in snowdrifts and cannot travel further. Such a situation must be unpleasant.”

Letter from Svante Arrhenius to Georg Bredig

Andree was Sweden's first balloonist and proposed the expedition. Fraenkel was a Swedish engineer and Strindberg was a Swedish scientist and photographer. Unfortunately, the expedition was not completed and all three expedition members perished.

The balloon quickly lost hydrogen within the first two days of the expedition and crashed into a pack of ice, leaving the explorers in Svalbard. In October 1897 the three men made it to Kvitøya (White Island) in Svalbard. The island is almost completely covered in an ice cap and uninhabited. The three men were not able to survive the harsh arctic weather and perished.

Posing with the wreck (via Tekniska museet)

No one knew the fate of the explorers until August 5, 1930, when, due to a particularly warm summer, sealers could access the island. There they found the remains of the three men, their boat, journals, and exposed rolls of film that Stringbeg had taken. 93 photographs were able to be developed.

The photographs capture the balloon’s crash and the months following. The photographs show the camps they set up, hunting polar bears, and other realities of living in the arctic.

Photo: Neil Strindberg

To see more photos that have been developed visit

To learn more about the Papers of Max and Georg Bredig visit the Technical Museums Flickr

#photography #history #archives #exploration #arctic exploration #S. A. Andrée #Nils Strindberg #Knut Fraenkel #svalbard #Nils Gustaf Ekholm #othmeralia

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