Hoofprints in Antarctica: Byrd, media, and the golden Guernseys

Cows and Antarctica rarely exist in the same sentence, let alone the same region. In 1933 Admiral Richard Byrd changed that, when he took three golden Guernseys to Little America II. These Antarctic cows may have appeared as little more than a footnote in Antarctic history, but their story is revealing of the commercial and media context of Byrd’s second Antarctic expedition. Byrd was a master of what he called “this hero business”, and his second expedition was thoroughly documented via print, film and radio – in the case of the latter, in real time. His decision to take a dairy south was one way of ensuring ongoing media attention. This paper chronicles the cows’ journey to and from Antarctica, placing their story within the context of exploration and sponsorship, in order to highlight a novel way Antarctica has been used as a tool in a commercial context.