Life jacket worn by a passenger who survived the Titanic auctioned off for over $900,000 A life jacket worn by a passenger on the RMS Titanic has sold at auction for 670,000 pounds, which is more than $900,000.

Reports that James Cameron was the winning bidder could not be confirmed

What a cool discovery—thought to be an 18th-century Russian boat built in the Dutch style found in the Norwegian Arctic!

The 1824 Dinner Party That Gathered the World’s Leading Explorers How those who had sailed closest to the North Pole, climbed to the tallest elevation and risen highest toward the heavens met one night in Paris. Plus: new Polar Intelligence.

I was pretty heartened by the public's interest in Artemis II and how so many scientists came together to collaborate, build, and discover — despite ~everything else.~

I wrote about another time scientists converged to share their knowledge and hopes 🚀🧪

A small common garter snake, mostly black with light yellow lengthwise stripes, partially curled up and resting in the sun on a pile of compost

Found a little friend hiding in my compost bin (common garter snake I believe)

An astronaut's antidote to despair (with help from early polar explorers, the astronauts of the prior century) www.themarginalian.org/2026/03/12/a...

OK one more: I found this cool official Rand McNally moon map in Dad’s collection! I didn’t want to flatten it too much so this is just a quarter of it unfolded. So neat!

An issue of Look Magazine with a picture an astronaut on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969

An issue of Newsweek with a close up picture of an astronaut on the moon during the first moon landing in 1969. A banner of the cover reads Moonwalk in Color

Issues of Look Magazine and Newsweek with the first #moon landing on the covers, saved by my dad in 1969

The cover of LIFE magazine dated August 8, 1969 featuring the 1969 moon landing

A two page magazine photo spread depicting an astronaut and American flag on the moon in 1969

The famous photo of Buzz Aldrin in a spacesuit on the moon in 1969

Another photo spread showing the first photos of astronauts on the moon in 1969

OK I started going through more of Dad’s #moon landing collection … here’s LIFE magazine’s spread

A yellowed copy of the The Washington Post newspaper dated July 21, 1969 with the large headline “The Eagle Has Landed—Two Men Walk on the Moon”

When I was going through my dad’s things after he passed away in 2022, I found a stack of newspapers reporting Apollo 11’s moon landing. I wish he was here to see #ArtemisII

The 1824 Dinner Party That Gathered the World’s Leading Explorers How those who had sailed closest to the North Pole, climbed to the tallest elevation and risen highest toward the heavens met one night in Paris. Plus: new Polar Intelligence.

If you could have a party with the most important people in your field, who would you invite?

A French astronomer brought scientists from the farthest points of the Earth together for one epic night in April 1824.

Discover who was on the guest list in the latest issue of Arctic Archives ...

Wait I’m confused is the tortoise alive or not

World's oldest known land animal, Jonathan the tortoise, dies at age 193 Jonathan the tortoise, the world's longest-living known land animal, has died at an estimated 193 years old, according to his caretaker.

RIP Jonathan 😭

It would help us a LOT if you were to read and share this; we're trying our best to demonstrate that well-sourced history and archaeology news can be popular, and also to normalise the foregrounding of the peer-reviewed papers that are so often behind the (often sensationalised) stories we see.

Thanks! What an amazing sight that must have been. I’d love to see the streets/walls where some of Frobisher’s ore ended up.

A splash screen for the Arctic Archives newsletter. It reads "Arctic Archives. Kat Long. Opening the vaults to discover remarkable stories from the history of Arctic Exploration and science." A small graphic shows a manila folder image with a picture of an icy Arctic scene on the cover.

For the whole story, including what we know of White’s life before the Arctic and as the governor of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, read the latest edition of my newsletter, Arctic Archives—and subscribe for free so you don’t miss an issue! ~Fin~

katlong.substack.com

Finally: White later became the leader of the Lost Colony of Roanoke and painted many Indigenous peoples of Virginia. I don’t think he would have been chosen for that endeavor without actual experience on a voyage of discovery, all but proving he was the first Elizabethan artist in the Arctic. 14/15

As an aside, White wasn’t even the expedition’s official artist. The real one was a Dutch court painter who definitely didn’t go on the voyage. He just made copies of White’s paintings! 13/15

Not if he had to travel from London, probably! So he was likely in Bristol already, which suggests he HAD gone on the voyage. 12/15

The Inuit man, named Kalicho, became seriously ill from untreated broken ribs and infections and died on November 7. The woman, called Arnaq, died four days later from similar infections. Did White actually have time to paint them while they were still in decent health? 11/15

A section of a map of Elizabethan London showing a mess of buildings and streets in red along the north side of the River Thames.

If White wasn’t on the voyage, he would have had to travel from London (where he lived) to Bristol, roughly 120 miles, to paint the Inuit. And he would have had to get there by around the 3rd week of October 1577 (Elizabethan roads being what they were) because … 10/15

OK, but some scholars think White could have painted the battle in England from someone else’s description, and the Inuit portraits after the captives arrived in England. Is that likely? Frobisher’s ship arrived in Bristol in early October 1577 … 9/15

John White's watercolor painting of an Arctic battle between Inuit and English sailors. Some Inuit in the background are in kayaks in an ice-strewn waterway. One person in a large kayak is in the foreground. Four more Inuit are on a headland over the water and shooting arrows at a boat containing English sailors. The Englishmen are firing muskets and a large English flag is waving from the boat's bow.

White also painted a skirmish between Inuit and Frobisher’s men at a site called “Bloody Point.” David Beers Quinn, top John White expert, believes it was done “by someone who was present” at the Arctic battle, thus “the only evidence that White was a member of the expedition.” … 8/15

A portrait of the Elizabethan privateer Martin Frobisher, a white guy with brown hair and a short beard. He wears a gold-colored doublet with a white ruff collar and poofy white sleeves. His gold pantaloons are even poofier. He's wearing white shoes and holding a pistol.

Either Frobisher or Michael Lok, the court-connected agent who organized the voyage, could have picked White to go on it as one of the 30 or so “gentlemen-adventurers” who accompanied the crew. They were unpaid—explaining why White isn’t listed on the crew manifest … 7/15

So did White paint them in the Arctic? Before the voyage, White and Frobisher probably knew each of each other from Queen Elizabeth I’s court. White was likely a courtier and Frobisher was one of the queen’s favorite privateers. 6/15

An old-timey sepia-toned illustration of the Bristol harbor with warehouses and sailing ships in the river. The tower of St. Stephen's church is in the background to the left.

The expedition landed in Bristol in October 1577 with 200 tons of the gold-flecked ore and the three captives. The man and woman soon died. They were buried in the city’s St. Stephen’s Church. The baby died in London. 5/15

During the trip, Frobisher’s men captured the three Inuit whom White painted—a man, a woman, and her baby. He hoped to exchange them for some English sailors who went missing the year before. Negotiations failed and the three were taken to England. 4/15

A summary of the names of the crew members on the Ayde, one of Martin Frobisher's ships that sailed to Baffin Island from England in 1577. They are all spelled in goofy Elizabethan style.

White’s name is not on the list of crew members, which suggests he wasn’t on the voyage … 3/15

First, background: English Capt. Martin Frobisher had sailed to Baffin Island in 1576 looking for the NW Passage. He found a bunch of gold-ish rocks instead, and went back in 1577 to mine them. HIstorians argue whether John White was on the 1577 voyage—because written evidence is pretty scarce. 2/15

Two portraits of an Inuit man and woman by the Elizabeth artist John White, superimposed on a map of Baffin Bay.

Elizabethan artist John White drew the first pictures of Inuit people that Europeans had ever seen. But scholars debate how he did it. Some say White merely painted the Inuit in England, after they arrived as captives in 1577.

Here’s why I believe White was actually in the Arctic … 1/15

An illustration of an Inuit man in a fur parka imposed on a blue-green map with a compass rose at the top, with text saying "An Elizabethan Artist in the Arctic: Before John White led the Lost Colony of Roanoke, he painted the first detailed images of Arctic people that Europeans had ever seen. Plus: Scoresby book research and polar news. Arctic Archives. Katlong.Substack.com"

John White is known as the governor of the Lost Colony of Roanoke, Sir Walter Raleigh’s ill-fated settlement in America.

But before that, White showed Europeans their first paintings of Arctic people.

Who was John White—and how did he end up in the Arctic?

katlong.substack.com/p/an-elizabe...