Image

Continent of Peace

A bust of Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd stands on the deck of the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic headquarters. Behind Byrd fly the 12 flags of the original Antarctic Treaty nations: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Byrd was the last of the Heroic Age explorers and the first of the modern age. He made five expeditions, spent a winter alone in the interior of Antarctica, and explored much of the continent between 1922 and his death in 1957. His vision is engraved on the memorial: “I am hopeful that Antarctica in its symbolic robe of white will shine forth as a continent of peace, as nations working together there in the cause of science set an example of international cooperation.”
(Photo by Chris Linder, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)