ABSTRACT

In a magnificent portrait of Adolf Erik Nordenskiold, the famous Swedish explorer gazes out over the ice floes, with his ship The Vega looming in the background. He is dressed warmly against the cold. In one hand he holds an ice-pick, in the other a pair of binoculars.2 In this setting signifying "the North," the heroic scientist appears. Nearly as heroic is the studio portrait of Axel Hamberg outfitted in full mountain-climbing gear (he too is clutching an ice-pick), to be found in his well known guide to trekking in the Sarek mountain range. 3 These images of science and the north are also images of masculinity; or rather, of one of the masculine ideals that emerged in the decades around the turn of the last century. Other "masculinities" might include the "conscientious worker," striving for modernity and the future, or the hardy, diligent peasant who venerated both God and Country.4 However, my interest concerns another, middle-class masculinity in which I believe there exists a connection between masculinity and the north, and where the status and conditions for mountain and arctic exploration comprise the connecting link.