Dr William Gordon Stables (1837–1910) was perhaps the most prolific author of juvenile works during the second half of the 19th century, publishing more than 130 full-length novels, in addition to offering regular contributions to juvenile magazines. His writings covered a diverse range of subject areas, spanning all regions of the globe, and offered lively tales of adventure often coupled with moral guidance and imperialistic overtones. However, it was juvenile tales of adventure set in the far north that were his favourites and among his most frequent selections. Drawing upon his own first-hand Arctic experiences, Stables provided a knowledgeable view of the northern regions, offering vivid and realistic depictions of life and work in the Arctic, as well as its peoples, natural history and natural wonders. The challenges of survival in the harsh environment of the Arctic fostered a physical approach to manliness and maturity in Stables’ young heroes, who served as powerful role models for his youthful audience. Stables’ works enjoyed widespread popularity among impressionable juvenile readers and helped to shape their perceptions of the Arctic regions and impart character values on their path to adulthood. This article examines Stables’ contribution to Arctic storytelling in the late Victorian era.

One of the last frontiers of the pre-Christian Sámi religion and cosmology from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries can be found recorded as embedded systems of knowledge on a range of noaidi-shaman drums kept in museums across Europe. Missionaries and clergymen as well as explorers who sought interest in the magical powers of the Sámi noaidi collected these artefacts during witchcraft trials and persecutions throughout Sápmi, the Sámi homeland areas. Insomuch as the drums being taken away from their owners and shipped from their homelands to other countries, their safeguarding, security and preservation as ancient sources of knowledge in museums is seldom discussed. As a consequence, the investigation presented here is a case study concerning the disappearance of a Sámi noaidi drum sent to a museum in France that has its origins in Swedish Sápmi, which I was informed about in 2017 prior to a visit to Paris for a seminar concerning the Sámi and their culture in Finland. The loss of the drum has only recently become known, and raises a series of important questions concerning responsibilities museums have with regard to the protection of property belonging to the Sámi as well as the repatriation and return of cultural heritage with regard to historical artefacts.

A rich seam of scientific research has been opened by the recent location of both shipwrecks from the disastrous 1845 Franklin northwest passage expedition. Even more than the forensic study of any human remains, the contents of Her Majesty’s Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror have already begun to illuminate the day-to-day lives of Victorian sailors in the Arctic. Yet many hitherto unexamined but informative documents have survived too, both in the British National Archives and at local levels throughout the United Kingdom, which also enable us to focus upon those men, their work and families, thereby gaining a far better understanding of their meticulously planned but ultimately doomed voyage. This article examines the previously ignored Royal Navy Allotment Books and cross-references them with other contemporary records, such as censuses and parish registers, to give us new insights into the backgrounds of the crews of HMSs Erebus and Terror.

The king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) is a pelagic species that breeds on sub-Antarctic islands relatively close to the Antarctic polar front. After a significant decline at the beginning of the twentieth century because of widespread exploitation by sealers, the species’ numbers are currently increasing, with observed local fluctuations. There has also been an increase in the number of sightings in the Antarctic, and recorded breeding attempts in this area. Here we present the history of observations of king penguins from 1977 to 2017 in two Antarctic Specially Protected Areas: ASPA No. 128 Western Shore of Admiralty Bay, and No. 151 Lions Rump, King George Island, South Shetland Islands (Western Antarctic). Additionally, we report on a new breeding site at Lions Rump, the third known breeding site for this species in the South Shetland Islands. Together with observations from other parts of the archipelago, the information in this study supports earlier suggestions of a southerly expansion of this species and of attempts to colonise the Antarctic Peninsula region.