Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: Sverdrup Stamp UnveilingsOn March 26 of this year, Norwegian explorer Otto Sverdrup (1854 -1930) was commemorated with stamps jointly issued by Canada, Norway, and Greenland.Tom Charlton, VP Operations, Canada Post, remarked that this is the first time Canada has ever embarked on a multinational philatelic project.This collaboration speaks to the breadth of Sverdrup's explorations in the North: he achieved the first crossing of Greenland in 1888 -89, captained Fram safely through its drift in the polar ice pack in 1893 -96, and explored and mapped 260,000 square kilometres of new land in the Canadian High Arctic while leading the Second Fram Expedition in 1898 -1902.The Norwegian Ambassador to Canada, Ingvard Havnen, hosted an unveiling ceremony in Ottawa attended by Norwegian State Secretary Kim Tråvik and Canada's Ambassador to Norway, Shirley Wolff Serafini.The Norwegian and Greenlandic stamps were unveiled in Oslo, in a March 24 ceremony on board Fram (which, through Sverdrup's efforts, is now preserved as a walk-through museum on the Oslo waterfront).The CEO of Norway Post, Kåre Frydenberg, and the Director of Greenland Post, Søren Rose, presented the stamps after a speech by Per Egil Hegge, Sverdrup's biographer.The joint issue was a complex circumpolar production.Designed by Morten Mörck of Norway, the three stamps were printed in Denmark.Each participating country has denominated different stamps on souvenir sheets and firstday covers that depict background scenes and sledging routes from the Second Fram Expedition.The Canadian covers bear the cancellation of Grise Fiord (Nunavut), one of many place names that are an enduring legacy of Otto Sverdrup.Our thanks to Graeme Magor, who attended the Ottawa ceremony, and Arne Growen of Trondheim, Norway, who attended the Oslo ceremony, for providing this note on the stamp unveilings.
Source: ARCTIC
DOI: 10.14430/arctic545
Author: Karen McCullough
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4253960592