29 August 2015 – 3 April 2016

This large joint exhibition, organized by US, French and Canadian museums, is about one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of exploration: the story of conquering the South Pole.

Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and British Navy officer Robert Falcon Scott started their expeditions in 1911 almost simultaneously. Both reached the destination but only one of them returned home.

Race to the End of the Earth describes and depicts both teams’ equipment and tactics, and the daily life, thoughts and moods of the men. On display are Scott’s and Amundsen’s base camps, partially reconstructed, unique photos, drawings and a lot more. Antarctica was still mostly undiscovered in those days, and modern communication technologies were unavailable: on a journey of thousands of kilometres in the harshest environment on Earth, survival was a matter of one’s own decisions and guesses.

Besides the conquest of the South Pole, the exhibition also presents the nature and wildlife of the Antarctic and its present, dedicated to science. The icy continent has been visited by a number of Estonians, whose activities are thoroughly detailed by exhibits prepared by the Estonian Maritime Museum.

This exhibition has been organized by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, US, and Musée des Confluences, Lyon, France, and the Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, Canada.