CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH (1776-1859)
Mount Terror (3, 262m - 10, 702 ft)
Antarctica (Ross Island)
In Cap Crozier and Mount Terror - Watercolour from Views of Polar region, Connecticut Yale Center for British arts
The mountain
Mount Terror (3, 262m - 10, 702 ft) is a large shield volcano that forms the eastern part of Ross Island, Antarctica. It has numerous cinder cones and domes on the flanks of the shield and is mostly under snow and ice. It is the second largest of the four volcanoes which make up Ross Island and is somewhat overshadowed by its neighbor, Mount Erebus, 30 km (19 mi) to the west. Mt. Terror was named in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross for his second ship, HMS Terror. The captain of Terror was Captain Francis Crozier who was a close friend of Ross.
Those areas are from 0.82 to 1.75 million years old. Mount Terror showed no signs of volcanic activity more recent than that.
The first ascent of Mt. Terror was made by a New Zealand party in 1959.
Cape Crozier is the most easterly point on Ross Island in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1841 during the Erebus and Terror expedition of James Clark Ross, and was named after Francis Crozier, captain of HMS Terror. The Mount Terror volcano is located near the cape and the edge of the Ross barrier extends to the east.
This cape is a breeding area of the Adélie penguin and emperor penguin. It is a specially protected zone (zone n ° 6) by international agreement: any crossing of the zone, or overflight, is prohibited.
The message board erected on January 22, 1902 by Robert F. Scott during the Discovery Expedition and the remains of the hut built in July 1911 by the members of Edward Wilson's expedition are classified as a historic monument of the Antarctic.
The artist
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and... spy as well !. His military career began in 1787, when he studied at the Austrian academy for artillery and engineers at Mechelen and Leuven in Belgium (his native country). Although his military service, which ended in 1820 and included the Napoleonic Wars, saw him travel extensively (including the West Indies, Canada, United States, Southern and Northern Europe and ...Antarctica).
As a prolific self-taught illustrator (over 38,000 drawings!) He left quite an important number of books of beautifully watercolored landscapes taken all around the world. those nooks of watercolors are nowadays in the collections of the Yale Center From British Art. Among them :
The artist
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith, was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and... spy as well !. His military career began in 1787, when he studied at the Austrian academy for artillery and engineers at Mechelen and Leuven in Belgium (his native country). Although his military service, which ended in 1820 and included the Napoleonic Wars, saw him travel extensively (including the West Indies, Canada, United States, Southern and Northern Europe and ...Antarctica).
As a prolific self-taught illustrator (over 38,000 drawings!) He left quite an important number of books of beautifully watercolored landscapes taken all around the world. those nooks of watercolors are nowadays in the collections of the Yale Center From British Art. Among them :
- Views of France, Volume I (81 watercolors), Views of France, Volume II (93 watercolors),
- Views of England and Wales, Volume I (82 watercolors), Views of England and Wales, Volume II (74 watercolors),
- Views of Northern Europe, Volume I (68watercolors) , Views of Northern Europe, Volume II (78) watercolors),
- Views of Polar Regions (75 watercolors) (see above)
- Views of Spain, Volume I (69 watercolors), Views of Spain, Volume II (72 watercolors),
But one of his noteworthy achievements was an 1800 experiment to determine which color should be used for military uniforms. He is also known in military history circles for Costume of the Army of the British Empire, produced towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and an accurate depiction of contemporary British uniform.
As an antiquarian, he also produced, in collaboration with Samuel Rush Meyrick, Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, 1815, and The Ancient Costume of England, with historical illustrations of medieval knights, ladies, shipsm and battles.
He also wrote on the history of the Seven Years' War and TheNatural history of dogs.
Quite a productive fellow !
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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau
