Geographies of the Romantic North ― Science, Antiquarianism and Travel, 1790-1830

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, unprecedented numbers of Britons travelled to the sub-Arctic, foreshadowing the later mid-nineteenth century fever for Arctic exploration. At the same time, literary and scientific developments contributed to the movement now known as Romanticism. How did the sciences, antiquarianism, and ethnology interact to produce visions of the North? And what happened when British 'men of science' and Northern indigenous peoples encountered each other's ways of knowing the world? This book presents a new approach towards British engagements with the North to produce a new appreciation for its importance in British identities, the Romantic imagination, and the advancement of the sciences.