MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

An exhibition on South Georgia takes off in Cambridge

SPRI in Cambridge

An exhibition entitled “Governing South Georgia: A century of managing marine resources” opens at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge next July 16th and by early 2009 should visit the Falkland Islands before finally ending in Grytviken.

The exhibition commemorates a century since the issuing of Letters Patent on July 21st 1908. This document defined the British claim to South Georgia. South Georgia was first claimed for the British Crown by Captain Cook when he landed at Possession Bay in 1775, but the claim was not formally defined until Letters Patent were issued, setting out the geographical extent of the Falkland Island Dependencies (of which South Georgia was a part). The exhibition, which is jointly funded by the South Georgia Association and GSGSSI, looks at South Georgia's history of administration and management since 1908, starting with the Letters Patent and the arrival of the first magistrate James Wilson in 1909 up to the current fisheries management regime. The exhibition will be on tour as follows: SPRI, July 16th to September 17th http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/ Discovery Point, Dundee, October 4th to November 16th http://www.rrsdiscovery.com Maritime Historical Studies Centre, Hull, November 21st to December 24th http://www.hull.ac.uk/mhsc. Thereafter the exhibition will go to Stanley, Falkland Islands, before finally ending-up at Grytviken. South Georgia Island Website