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Medals

Reference:4566 Discovery of the Andree Polar Expedition, 1930

Conjoined busts of Andree, Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel, to right. Overhead map of Spitzbergen, Svalbard and Kvitoya, upon which the path of the expedition, by balloon north from Danskoya, and then on foot, south from Kvitoya, is delineated. By Alfredo. Silver. 56 mm. in diameter.

Condition: Extremely fine and rare.

Notes: The Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 was an ill-fated attempt to reach the North Pole in which all three expedition members Sven Andree, Nils Strindberg and Knut Fraenkel perished. S. A. Andrée (1854-97), the first Swedish balloonist, proposed a voyage by hydrogen balloon from Svalbard to either Russia or Canada, which was to pass, with luck, straight over the North Pole on the way. The scheme was received with patriotic enthusiasm in Sweden, a northern nation that had fallen behind in the race for the North Pole. The medal commemorates the discovery of the expedition remains.