The first IPY is striking because it marks the point at which countries began to cooperate in their scientific exploration of the Polar Regions.
It is also one of the first instances of expeditions being launched for the sole purpose of scientific exploration. Previous to the first IPY, most expeditions were aimed primarily at geographic exploration and any scientific monitoring was incidental.
The book is available from the Arctic Institute of North America, a non-profit membership organization and multidisciplinary research institute of the University of Calgary. Its mandate is to advance the study of the North American and circumpolar Arctic through the natural and social sciences, as well as the arts and humanities, and to acquire, preserve, and disseminate information on physical, environmental, and social conditions in the North. Created as a bi-national corporation in 1945, the Institute's United States Corporation is housed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
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