Alexandre Simon-Ekeland

• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre & Delsett, Lene Liebe (2024). Whales as a Nordic speciality: Collecting cetaceans for Natural History Museums (1860s–1910s). Nordisk Museologi. ISSN 1103-8152. 1, p. 28–43. doi: 10.5617/nm.11591. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Whales are not specifically Nordic animals, but Nordic whales have been central in European natural history collections since the second half of the nineteenth century; this article analyses how this came to be. Several factors came into play: the interest in whales among many researchers and curators working in natural history museums, the development of modern whaling from the 1860s, and the development of networks of exchange and sale of scientific specimens. We study these three factors through the traces they have left in the museums’ catalogues, in archives, and in the collections themselves and argue that, individually, these factors would not have had such a big impact. It is their combination in this period that has given Nordic whales such a central place in natural history collections.

• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2024). How Jean-Baptiste Charcot came to embrace fear but not anger. Emotions of polar exploration and their communication to the public in the 1900s. Polar Record. ISSN 0032-2474. 60(371), p. 1–10. doi: 10.1017/S0032247423000384. Full text in Research Archive
• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2023). The Emotional Work of a Would-Be Polar Explorer in the 1860s: Gustave Lambert’s Lecture Tour. Emotions: History, Culture, Society (EHCS). ISSN 2206-7485. 7(2), p. 278–297. doi: 10.1163/2208522x-bja10046. Full text in Research Archive
• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2023). Dreams of Arctic flights. French aerial polar expedition projects 1870s– 1900s. Lychnos. ISSN 0076-1648. doi: 10.48202/24816. Full text in Research Archive
• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2023). Un nationalisme apolitique ? Gustave Lambert et son projet d’expédition au pôle Nord (1865-1871). In Piermay, Jean-Luc; Goerg, Odile; Hamman, Philippe & Zander, Patricia (Ed.), Faire connaître les mondes en découverte. Explorer, représenter, diffuser les savoirs sur les mondes réels et imaginaires. Presses Universitaires de Rennes. ISSN 9782753592797. p. 177–189. Full text in Research Archive
• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2021). A Fascinated Disgust: French Travellers and North Norwegian Whaling at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. In Kaasa, Janicke S.; Lothe, Jakob & Spring, Ulrike (Ed.), Nordic Travels. Novus Forlag. ISSN 9788283900781. p. 69–86. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  We all have stories of travel, and these narratives reveal how we define ourselves and how we understand others. The fourteen contributors to this book take “travel writing”, “travel account” and “travelogue” as synonyms of the term “travel narrative”. While the travel narratives discussed in this volume were written during, and after, journeys undertaken at different points in time, they are all related to the Nordic region: travels to, from and within the Nordics, by both Nordic and non-Nordic travellers. As the authors show, paintings, illustrations and objects such as souvenirs also contribute to our understanding of travels to, from and within the Nordic countries. This range of travellers and travel experiences offers strikingly different perspectives on the Nordic region, which in turn allows for a comparative and critical approach. The element of comparison is crucial here; it shows not only how dissimilar perceptions of the Nordic are but also how they have changed over time. One concluding point made in the book is that if Nordic travels have been associated with a privileged mobility unavailable to noncitizens and refugees, travellers from the Nordic countries will be even more troubled by this implicit reference as climate changes accelerate. Presenting Nordic travels as multi-dimensional and dynamic, the collection owes its inception to the UiO:Nordic research initiative. [Text on back cover]

• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2020). La plaque commémorative du "Latham 47" à Tromsø. Pratiques touristiques et journalistiques. DESHIMA, revue d'histoire globale des pays du Nord. ISSN 1957-5173. p. 117–132. Full text in Research Archive
• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2018). « Les « pays du Nord » européens dans la géographie imaginée des journalistes du Petit Parisien, 1876-1914 ». DESHIMA, revue d'histoire globale des pays du Nord. ISSN 1957-5173. Full text in Research Archive
• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2018). Le(s) discours sur le froid dans "Le Petit Parisien" en 1900, Le froid : adaptation, production, effets, représentations. Presses de L'Université du Québec. ISSN 9782760549234. p. 147–160. doi: 10.2307/j.ctv6zd9dq.11. Full text in Research Archive

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• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre (2026). Celebrity and Polar Exploration. De Gruyter Brill. ISBN 9789004762138. doi: 10.1163/9789004762145. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  This book analyses various French polar expedition projects that were proposed between the 1860s and the late 1930s, comparing the projects that led to expeditions with those that did not. It shows that the successful would-be explorers had to become famous first, before they could secure support and funding for their plans. Explorers were “made” partly by themselves, but also largely through the efforts of the many others who promoted their plans: armchair scientists and geographers, journalists, politicians, and common citizens, all of whom contributed to the formation of a French culture of polar exploration.

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• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre & Delsett, Lene Liebe (2022). Collecting whales. Whale collections in the Bergen and Paris natural history museums in the end of the 19th century. Full text in Research Archive
• Simon-Ekeland, Alexandre & Delsett, Lene Liebe (2022). Å bestille en hval. Full text in Research Archive

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