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Ronne, first US woman to go to Antarctica, dies
last update: Jun 22, 2009 11:03 AM
From various news articles: Edith "Jackie" Ronne, who became the first U.S. woman to set foot on Antarctica accompanying her explorer husband there in 1947, has died at age 89.
Edith "Jackie" Ronne (Photo: Family photo / The Washington Post)
Ronne, who had not planned to join her husband on the expedition, was persuaded by her husband Finn Ronne. He was a Norwegian-born former U.S. Navy captain who insisted that he couldn't manage his low-budget exploration without her; he didn't have the language skills to write dispatches for the North American Newspaper Alliance, one of the trip's sponsors. So she finally agreed to go all the way to Antarctica, but insisted that another woman come along, Jennie Darlington, a Canadian and the new wife of the expedition's chief pilot.
It turned out to be a wise decision. Although most of the men didn't like having women along, their presence helped calm what became a tense and argumentative 15 months.
Mrs. Ronne was the first American woman to land in Antarctica, and she and Darlington, were the first women to overwinter there, from 1947 to 1948. She had a degree in history from George Washington University, and was the trip's recorder-historian. She also assisted the seismologist, who measured the first earthquake recorded in Antarctica and kept track of the tides. She filed dispatches, often under her husband's name, for the news alliance and the New York Times and kept a daily diary in which she recorded a range of experiences, including the difficulties of living in a 12-foot-square hut that was also the expedition's base and the dangers that beset the men.
The continent's natural beauty took her by surprise. "The approach to the Continent through light pack ice was magnificent. I was totally in awe of where I was going and I anticipated a great adventure," she wrote in the book "Antarctica's First Lady" (2004).
Although there were many difficulties they had to face, the trip was a scientific success. The group explored more than 250,000 square miles of the continent, including both coasts of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Weddell Sea's southern margin. They traveled by land and by air, setting down at 86 points to make celestial observations.
"Perhaps most important," National Geographic reported in 1993, "the explorers at East Base had finally proved Antarctica was all one continent, laying to rest the theory that a frozen sea divided it."
Articles:
San Francisco Chronicle, 19th June 2009
Taiwan News, 19th June 2009
NewsDay.com, 22nd June 2009
Wall Street Journal, 20th June 2009
