Map of the Countries round the North Pole circa 1898

Map of the countries round the North Pole first published circa 1898 by Edward Stanford. This scarce map depicts the entire arctic region featuring the furthest-most points reached by arctic explorers, from regions of the earth never before visited by man, with the dates of the explorations. At the time this map was published Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen had achieved the record for the Furthest North during Nansen's Fram Expedition 1893 - 1896. With his ship the Fram, Fridtjof Nansen left Norway in July 1893 in an attempt to reach the geographic North Pole. Sailing to the New Siberian Islands in the eastern arctic ocean, he froze the Fram into the pack ice & waited for the drift to carry her towards the north pole. The Fram was carried for hundreds of miles between the North Pole and Franz Josef Land. The northern most point reached by the ship was in 1895. Frustrated at the lack of progress towards the pole, Fridtjof Nansen left the ship after 18 months with Hjalmar Johansen and three dog drawn sledges in attempt to reach the pole by sledging across the ice. In April 1895 they made the record of Furthest Point North whereby they could not get any further and set course for Franz Josef Land where they were forced to spend the winter. In May 1986 they left their camp and made their way to Cape Flora in two kayaks. The ship finally emerged from the ice off the north coast of West Svalbard on August 13th 1896, the same day that Nansen arrived in Vardø, Norway.

Edward Stanford (1827 - 1904) was a map maker and seller prominent in the late 19th century. Founder of what is now Stanford's Ltd, a world renowned map company that is still producing and selling maps to this day. Stanford was educated at the City of London School, establishing his map business in 1853.