GEOGRAPHIC NAMES OF ANTARCTICA 



The kinds of nomenclature problems encoun- 

 tered in Antarctica fall largely in these classes: 

 determination of the facts, circumstances and, in- 

 sofar as possible the intent, of original and any 

 subsequent naming; the choice between multiple 

 names for a feature; the choice between alterna- 

 tive generic terms such as land or coast; the correc- 



tioh of generic terms for features whose nature 

 was not accurately known at the time of naming, 

 such as a peninsula which turns out to be an 

 island; identification and fixing of location; defini- 

 tive description; and determination of the appro- 

 priateness of names for application to specific 

 features. 



Resolution of the Problem 



The need for systematic overall treatment of 

 Antarctic names was brought to the attention of 

 the then United States Board on Geographical 

 Names by the requirements of the 1939-41 United 

 States Antarctic Service expedition and by the 

 concomitant preparation of a chart of Antarctica 

 and a companion volume of Sailing Directions by 

 the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office. 



The chart and Sailing Directions were prepared 

 under the direction of Rear Admiral (then Lieu- 

 tenant Commander) Robert A. J. English, USN 

 (Retired), who was Executive Secretary of the 

 United States Antarctic Service Interdepartmental 

 Executive Committee. Admiral English discussed 

 informally many problems of nomenclature and 

 specific name proposals with Lawrence Martin 

 (Library of Congress), and W. L. G. Joerg (Na- 

 tional Archives), who had concerned themselves 

 for some time with Antarctic nomenclature. Also 

 available to Admiral English was such general 

 information on policy and background as the Board 

 had developed up to that time, which unfortunately 

 did not include a definite and comprehensive state- 

 ment of policy specifically pointed to the problems 

 of Antarctic names. 



In preparing the chart and Sailing Directions, 

 it became evident that the resolving of name con- 

 flicts which had arisen over many years and the 

 examination of new name proposals would involve 

 specialized research. The U.S. Navy Hydrographic 

 Office on Nov. 27, 1939 formally referred to the 

 then Board on Geographical Names for its consid- 

 eration, all names then appearing on the chart. 

 A Special Committee on Antarctic Names was 

 appointed on July 23, 1943, with, as members 

 W. L. G. Joerg, Chairman, Capt. Harold E. Saun- 

 ders, U.S.N., and, for a few months, Lawrence Mar- 

 tin. The Committee met with the then Director of 

 the Board on Jan. 5, 1944, made a preliminary 

 appraisal of the situation, and considered several 

 key names upon which it made recommendations. 

 These recommendations were accepted and the 

 names were approved and promulgated. In Ant- 

 arctica, as elsewhere, it is necessary to examine 

 the whole of the nomenclature berfore the relation 



of any one name to the general pattern becomes 

 clear, and as further examination proceeded some 

 of these decisions were appropriately revised. 



The Committee met at intervals during the 

 early part of 1944 and worked out additional 

 names, but the task progressively assumed ever- 

 increasing size until staff assistance was neces- 

 sary. A member of the then Division of Geog- 

 raphy, Dept. of the Interior, was assigned in Dec. 

 1944 to research, compile, index and analyze evi- 

 dence of exploration and specific names. In 

 March 1946 the Special Committee on Antarctic 

 Names agreed to devote two or three half-days a 

 week to their part of the program. Kenneth 

 Bertrand was assigned the staff work on Antarctic 

 names, and after joining the faculty of Catholic 

 University of America in Sep. 1946 he continued 

 his investigations as part of his University research 

 program. Fred G. Alberts, in charge of the pro- 

 gram since October 1949, was joined in March 1951 

 by Gardner D. Blodgett. 



An act of Congress in July 1947 abolished the 

 former Board and created the present one, respon- 

 sible conjointly with the Secretary of the Interior 

 for standardization of geographic names. Joerg 

 and Saunders were appointed members of a new 

 Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names that con- 

 tinued without break the work of the former Spe- 

 cial Committee. Bertrand was appointed a mem- 

 ber of the Committee in October 1947 and rounded 

 out an effective team. Meeting regularly one-half 

 day or more each week for nine years, and irregu- 

 larly after that, this group worked over a great 

 quantity of data in the consideration of practically 

 every name known to have been applied to, or 

 proposed for, features in Antarctica. The Com- 

 mittee was reduced to two by the death of Joerg 

 in January 1952. 



The Office of Naval Research in May 1949, recog- 

 nizing the value of an orderly Antarctic nomencla- 

 ture, the availability of the members of the Com- 

 mittee and the start that had been made in Special 

 Publication No. 86, contracted for the completion 

 of the study as a part of its program of support 

 of basic research. Under that contract the greater 



