Abstract
This presentation examines Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s involvement with the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair through the financing, curation and performance of an Antarctic-themed spectacle. As a leading American explorer during the first half of the twentieth century, Byrd completed two expeditions to the Antarctic, a North Pole flight and a transatlantic flight by this point in his career. Often striving to remain in the public consciousness to finance his expeditions, Byrd’s post-expedition activities included lecture tours and public speaking events strengthening his celebrity status.
Admiral Byrd’s Penguin Island represented one of Byrd’s ill-fated attempts to connect the American consciousness with Antarctica. Byrd’s responsibility as curator and host was to welcome the audience into his Antarctica by contextualizing scientific discoveries and forming a lasting association with the Southern Continent. During the exhibition, Byrd’s team discovered that spectacle must meet the audience’s performance expectations, while competing with other entertainments across the wider event. They provided living penguins, highlighted the scientific significance of their expeditions and exhibited the Antarctic landscape – yet this was not enough.
This presentation incorporates the professional correspondence of Admiral Richard E. Byrd, his business manager Leo McDonald and the organizers of the World’s Fair in order to illuminate a series of revelations surrounding the competition for an audience’s gaze and the economic realities when creating a performance. Taken as a case study, Admiral Byrd’s Penguin Island provides us window into the recurring dilemma of making Antarctic scientific discoveries accessible for a contemporary audience through performance.