Dumont d’Urville was tasked to circumnavigate the Pacific and explore the Antarctic. He departed France in September 1837 with the ships Astrolabe and Zélée. While in Antarctica, the French flag was raised over land Dumont d’Urville named Terre Adélie (Adélie Land) in honour of his wife. Leaving Antarctica, the expedition visited Hobart and New Zealand before arriving back in France in November 1840.
Early expeditions often presented gifts or tokens including specially struck medals to the indigenous peoples they encountered during the voyage. This was a way of both recognising any help received and tangibly marking the contact.
From Antarctica to France
05 November 2023
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Medal: Voyage Autour du Monde, Exploration du Pole Austral 1837
Canterbury Museum, 2009.110.1
This bronze medal was created for distribution during the exploratory voyages of the Astrolabe and Zélée. Around 30 silver and 450 bronze medals were made for the expedition. The obverse of the medal depicts Louis Philippe I, King of France who supported Antarctic exploration. The encircling wording translates as Voyage around the world, exploration of the Southern Pole. This particular medal was probably not presented but rather taken back to France and given to a crew member or official associated with the expedition as a memento of the voyage.
Among the records of Antarctic exploration held at the University of Canterbury, some of the most striking relate to the French explorer Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d’Urville. Plates such as this one, depicting the gathering of ice to provide potable water, provide a lively sense of life onboard ship during his voyages of the 1830s. The University of Canterbury’s copies were once in the possession of a military hospital in northern France and were possibly brought to New Zealand by soldiers returning from World War I. They were later transferred to the University collection from the Canterbury Public Library. They illustrate a fascination with the scientific exploration of the Antarctic, something that continues today via the University’s Gateway Antarctica programme.
Want to know more?
Ursula Rack, 'Dumont d'Urville and the Search for the Magnetic South Pole', in Treasures of the University of Canterbury Library, ed. by Chris Jones & Bronwyn Matthews with Jennifer Clement (Christchurch: CUP, 2011)
Day-to-day life in the course of polar exploration
Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont d’Urville, Voyage au Pôle Sud et dans l’Océanie sur les corvettes l’Astrolabe et la Zélée, éxecuté par ordre du Roi pendant les années, 1837,1838,1839,1840, sous le commandement de M. Dumont-d’Urville (Paris: Gide and Co, 1842–54)
University of Canterbury Library
