Scientific expedition to the North Atlantic, Scandinavian islands and arctic between 1838-1840
The French corvette La Recherche close to Bear Island, Svalbard, August 7, 1838. Painted by
Auguste Mayer.
The La Recherche Expedition of 1838 to 1840 was a French Admiralty expedition whose destination was the North Atlantic and Scandinavian islands, including the
Faroe Islands,
Spitsbergen and
Iceland.
The expedition in the Scandinavian countries from 1838 to 1840, was a direct continuation of shipments in 1835 and 1836. A letter dated 22 March 1837 revealed that
Joseph Paul Gaimard and
Xavier Marmier were preparing a trip to Copenhagen and Christiania (Norway) whose purpose was to gather additional information on Iceland and Greenland.[1]
On 13 June 1838 the French corvette La Recherche left Le Havre in France, bound for Northern Scandinavia.
Joseph Paul Gaimard (1796–1858), a physician and
zoologist was the commanding officer of the expedition. The expedition was on a purely scientific nature, rather than a colonial venture in cooperation with the governments of
Norway and
Sweden. Gaimard invited the
Sámi minister and
botanistLars Levi Læstadius on the voyage for his knowledge in botany and Sámi culture.[2]Auguste Bravais, a French scientist and
Louis Bévalet, a French artist, also accompanied the expedition.[3] The company was given an international dimension. Gaimard had hired many renowned European scholars. The Arctic exploration in the 1870s marked a watershed in the history of international scientific cooperation. The first evidence of this cooperation was, in 1882, the International Polar Year.
Publications
Lottin V., Bravais A. and Lilliehöök C.B. (1842). Voyages en Scandinavie, en Laponie, au Spitzberg et aux Feröe, pendant les années 1838, 1839, 1840 sur la corvette la Recherche. Arthus Bertrand.
Vol. 3, part 1. Chapitre V, Variations de l'Intensité magnétique verticale, Chapitre VI, Variations de l'inclinaison magnétique, Chapitre VII, Mesures de l'inclinaison magnétique. Chapitre VIII, Variations simultanées des éleménts du magnétisme terrestre p. 1-250
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00002/11358/7931.pdf